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NB401 > Brain, Spinal Cord and Nerves > Flashcards

Brain, Spinal Cord and Nerves Flashcards

1
Q

What does the Hypothalamus do? (9)

A
  • Regulates BP
  • Heart rate rate/force
  • Digestive tract motility
  • Breathing rate/depth
  • Other visceral activities
  • Maintain body temp
  • Regulates sleep and sleep cycle
  • Regulates hunger/satiety
  • Pleasure/fear/rage
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2
Q

What does the Midbrain do?

A

Controls, coordinates sensory/motor functions

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3
Q

What does the Pons do?

A

Relays sensory & motor inflammation, role in breathing

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4
Q

What does the Medulla Oblongata do?

A

Regulates heart rate, BP, breathing and responsible for reflex actions of coughing, sneezing, swallowing and vomiting

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5
Q

What does the Cerebellum do? (4)

A
  • Provides precise timings for contraction of skeletal muscle
  • Proprioceptors and visual signals inform the cerebrum of the bodies condition
  • Skills centre
  • Cerebellar cortex calculates the best way to perform a movement
  • Contains 50-80% of brains neurones. 11% of brains mass
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6
Q

What is a Decussation Pyramid and what does it do?

A
  • The medullary pyramids pair with white matter in the medulla oblongata that contain motor fibres called pyramidal tracts. The lower limit of the pyramids is marked when the fibres cross.
  • Decussation is responsible for contralateral control eg right hemisphere controls left parts of body
  • Diagram basically shows that the nerves switch to the other side of the brain.
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7
Q

What is Cortical Homunculus?

A

A distorted representation of the human body. The diagram represents that if the body was proportional to the brain dedicating processing motor/sensory functions to different parts of the body

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8
Q

What is the Cerebral Cortex and what does it Control?

A
  • Made of grey matter contributing to 40% of brain mass
  • Enables sense, communication, memory, understanding, voluntary movements
  • Each hemisphere acts contralaterally (controlling opposite sides of bodies)
  • No functional area acts alone; conscious behaviour involves the entire cortex.
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9
Q

What are the Sensory and Motor Cortex’s coordinate?

A

Somatosensory Cortex - coordinates the sensory data that comes up from all over the body
Motor Cortex - generates signal to coordinate movement

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10
Q

What Parts of the Brain are responsible for Speech and Language?

A

Broca’s Area; Production of Speech
Wermicke’s Area; Comprehension of Language

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11
Q

What is Grey Matter? And What does is it responsible for?

A
  • Contains most of the brains neural cell bodies connected to unmyelinated axons
  • Includes regions of brain involved in muscle control, sensory perception (seeing, hearing, memory, emotion, speech, decision making and self-control)
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12
Q

What is Cerebral White Matter? And what is it responsible for?

A
  • Tissue in which messages pass between different areas of grey matter in the CNS
  • Contains myelinated axons connecting cells bodies in deep structures of the brain
  • Responsible for communication between cerebral cortex/lower CNS and cerebrum areas
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13
Q

What impulses Converge/Pass through the Thalamus? And what is it Used for?

A
  • Afferent impulses from all sense converge in the thalamus
  • All inputs ascending to cerebral cortex, pass through the thalamus
  • Mediates, sensation, motor activities, cortical arousal and memory
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14
Q

What is the Munroe-Kelly Hypothesis?

A

The sum of volumes of the brain, CSF and intracranial blood stays constant so when one increases/decreases the other two decrease/increase

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15
Q

How is the Spinal Cord Connected to the Brain? And how is it being Protected?

A
  • The spinal cord is a continuation of the medulla oblongata and brain stem
  • It’s surrounded by meninges and bathed in CSF (where lumbar puncture usually occurs)
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16
Q

Where do the Nuerones go to/from through the Brain Stem and what does it Control?

A
  • Neurones from/to the cerebrum and the rest of the body pass through the brain stem
  • Controls the automatic behaviours necessary for survival
17
Q

What are the Different Spinal Vertebrae and how many are there?

A
  • Cervical x7
  • Thoracic x12
  • Lumbar x5
  • Sacral x5 (fused)
18
Q

How many Spinal Nerves are there? And What/Where is the Cauda Equina?

A
  • There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves extending from the spinal cords as ‘nerve root’s between each vertebrae
  • The Cauda Equina hangs from the conus medullaris at the 2nd lumbar vertebrae (L2) - responsible for sensory function to the legs and the bladder
19
Q

What type of Nerves are Spinal Nerves? And where do they go?

A
  • They are all mixed nerves that contain sensory and motor fibres for both somatic and autonomic NS function
  • All spinal nerves EXCEPT THORACIC nerves go through complex branches called plexuses before combining with other nerves
20
Q

How many Cranial Nerves are there and What are they like?

A
  • 12 pairs of cranial nerves
  • More specialised than spinal as some purely sensory/motor while some are mixed
  • All but two arise from the brain stem
21
Q

What are between the Vertebrae and What do they do?

A

Intervertebral discs or laminae made of cartilage act as shock absorbers, but the discs can slip and put pressure on the cranial nerve

22
Q

Detail the Journey of Fibres within the Spinal Nerves

A
  • Sensory (afferent) fibres enter the spinal cord at its dorsal roots (posterior)
  • Motor (efferent) fibres leave the spinal cord at its ventral roots (anterior)
23
Q

What are Spinal Reflexes?

A
  • Reflexes that are responses that do not involve extensive integration with the brain
  • Where sensory impulses are short circuited in the spinal cord to evoke motor response without being conducted to the brain
  • Usually protective/rapid as no brain integration
24
Q

Spinal Reflex Action Example

A
  1. Sharp object stimulates pain sending sensory signal to CNS entering at the cord at the dorsal root
  2. The sensory impulse passes through spinal cord and sends motor neuron which evokes a motor response via the ventral root
  3. Because withdrawal of the limb will unbalance the body, interneurons within the grey matter of the cord that also synapse with sensory neuron
  4. Interneurons initiate motor responses to muscles in the opposite limb & back to compensate by a combination of excitatory & inhibitory responses that contract & relax skeletal muscle

NB401 (14 decks)

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