Brain and Nervous System Flashcards
What are efferent motor neurons and afferent motor neurons?
Efferent: carry impulses away from CNS to muscles/glands
Afferent: carry impulses to CNS from sense organs
What are the directions of the body?
Ventral/Anterior- front of body
Posterior/Dorsal- back of body
Cephallic- where the brain is
Caudal- where the hip is
Medial- inside (middle)
Lateral- outside of the middle
Distel- bottom of limb
Proximal- top of limb
Superior- top of body
Inferior- bottom of body
What are the directions of our brain?
Anterior Rostral (front of brain)
Inferior (bottom bit of brain)
Posterior Caudal (back of brain)
Superior (top of brain)
What are the types of perspectives we can view our brains at?
Coronal: front view of brain
Mid Sagittal (or medial): side view of brain, if the side of the brain isn’t directly in the middle it’s called lateral sagittal
Axial: view of top of the brain
What is right and left lateral?
Left lateral is the left hemisphere, we can tell because the cerebellum is on the right hand side and the eyes are on the left
Right lateral is the right hemisphere, cerebellum is on the left side
What are the types of neuroanatomy?
Gross and microscopic anatomy
What is the CNS and PNS?
Central Nervous System: brain and spine
Peripheral Nervous System: all the nerves other than spine and brain. Divided into Somatic nervous system and Autonomic nervous system
What are the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous systems?
Parasympathetic: rest and digest - calm down
Sympathetic: fight or flight - prepare for action
What is the amygdala and where is it?
Important for emotion
Hippocampus involves memory processes
Next to hippocampus which is why emotional memories are recalled better
What is contralateral representation?
What we see with our left eye is processed in the right hemisphere, use our right side of the body, ordered by the left hemisphere
What is grey and white matter?
White matter: mostly axons (which connects nerve cells so they can communicate)
Grey matter: contains majority of nerve cells
What is the central sulcus?
separates the parietal and frontal lobe
What is the sylvian fissure?
also known as lateral fissure
separates the temporal and frontal lobe
What is the parieto-occipital sulcus?
separates parietal and occipital lobe
What is the temporal occipital sulcus?
separates temporal and occipital lobe
What is the cerebrum?
Cerebral cortex, outer layer of our brain
The cortex is grey matter
what is the cerebellum?
connects spine and brain
under the temporal/occipital lobes
Where is the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe located?
Frontal: front of brain
Parietal: top of brain
Occipital: back of brain
Temporal: bottom of brain
Where is the superior frontal gyrus located?
frontal lobe
Where is the inferior temporal gyrus located?
temporal lobe
What is the precentral gyrus?
Where the motor cortex is located
Controls every muscle in the body
Other side of the central sulcus in the frontal lobe
Betz cells: largest cells in the brain
What is the postcentral gyrus?
Where the somatosensory cortex is
Feel every sensation
Other side of the central sulcus in the parietal lobe
What is a sulci and gyrus?
Sulcus: dips/fissures in the brain
A fissure is a deep sulci
Sulci is one sulcus
A gyrus is the bump after the dip
Where is the supramarginal gyrus?
Above the lateral fissure
What is an interhemispheric fissure?
fissure between hemispheres
What is the corpus callosum?
Where hemispheres are connected, they communicate via the corpus callosum
What is a microcircuit?
Localized interconnected neurons
Can be used to process sensory information and to generate movement
What are short and long projection neurons?
Some axons have short projects while some are larger and originate in one region of the brain and project to another
Axons from neurons reach these distant targets by descending into the white matter and then enter another region of the spinal cord or cortex
An example is the ganglion cells
What are neural circuits?
Macrocircuit: Multiple embedded microcircuits
Long distance connections between various brain regions
Integrates information from all the microcircuits
What are commissures?
Axons project from one cerebral hemisphere to the other in bundles
Corpus callosum is the largest commissure
What are the layers of the brain? Where is the CSF, what is it for?
The menings: outer membrane is made up of thick dura matter, the middle is made up of arachnoid matter, the inner layer is made up of pia matter.
CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) the brain floats in this which offsets pressure and damage that would be present if the brain was just laid at the base of the skull.
CSF is between the inner and middle layer in the arachnoid space.
CSF also reduces shock to the brain or spinal cord e.g. rapid acceleration or falls
What are the types of gyrus in the temporal lobe?
Superior temporal gyrus
Middle temporal gyrus
Inferior temporal gyrus
What are the types of gyrus in the frontal lobe?
Superior frontal gyrus
Middle frontal gyrus
Inferior frontal gyrus
Why do have folds in our brain?
Enable more cortical surface to be packed into the skull
More folds means neurons that are located further away if the gyri was flattened, are now closer together
Why is grey matter grey and white matter white in colour?
Cerebral cortex has many cell bodies which is why it appears grey- grey matter
Underlying regions appear pale or white because of the lipid myelin sheath- white matter
What is the insula?
Hidden in the sylvian fissure, between the temporal and frontal lobe, folded cortex which is divided into the larger anterior insula and smaller posterior insula
What is the premotor cortex and the supplementary cortex?
In the motor cortex
Premotor: motor control
Supplementary: planning and sequencing of movement
What is the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex?
In the somatosensory cortex
Primary somatosensory: from the thalamus, inputs travels here
Secondary somatosensory: from primary to processes the sensory information
Where is the cingulate sulcus and cingulate gyrus located?
Above the corpus callosum in the frontal lobe
Where is the parahippocampus gyrus located?
Next to the hippocampus
In the temporal lobe
