Chapter 4 - Anatomy Of The nervous System Flashcards
What is the central nervous system (CNS)?
The brain and the spinal cord
What is the peripheral nervous system (PNS)?
Connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.
What is the somatic nervous system?
It is part of the PNS. It consists of axons conveying messages from the sense organs to the CNS and from the CNS to the muscles. The axons to the muscles are an extension from cell bodies in the spinal cord, so part of each cell is in the CNS and part in the PNS.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
It is part of the PNS. It controls the heart, intestines, and other organs. This system has some of its cell bodies within the brain or spinal cord and some in clusters along the sides of the spinal cord.
What is dorsal?
The top of the brain for a 4 legged animal. For humans it is towards the back.
What is ventral?
In a 4 legged animal it is the bottom of the brain but in a human it is towards the stomach
What is anterior?
Toward the front end
What is posterior?
Toward the rear
What is superior?
Above another part
What is inferior?
Below another part
What is lateral?
Towards the side, away from the midline
What is medial?
Toward the midline, away from the side
What is proximal?
Located close to the point of origin or attachment
What is distal?
Located more distant from the point of origin or attachment
What is ipsilateral?
On the same side of the body
What is contralateral?
On the opposite side of the body
What are the 3 main ways in which to cut the brain?
Coronal plane (frontal plane, brain structures as seen of the front), Sagittarius plane (brain structures as seen from the side), horizontal plane (transverse plane, brain structures as seen from above)
What is a fissure?
A long, deep sulcus.
What is sulcus?
A fold or groove that separates one gurus from another
What is a gyrus?
a protuberance on the surface of the brain
What is a ganglion?
A cluster of neuron cell bodies, usually outside the CNS
What is a nucleus?
A cluster of neuron cell bodies within the CNS
What is a nerve?
A set of axons in the periphery, either from the CNS to a muscle or gland or from a sensory organ to the CNS
What is a tract ?
A set of axons within the CNS, also known as a projection.
What is a column?
A set of cells perpendicular to the surface of the cortex, with similar properties. eg. if one cell in column responds to touch on the palm of the left hand then the other cells in that column do too.
What is a lamina?
A row or layer of cell bodies separated from other cell bodies by a layer of axons and dendrites. The brain has 6 distinct laminae. The laminae are layers of cell bodies that are parallel to the surface of the cortex ad separated from each other by layers of fibers.
The laminae vary in thickness and prominence from one part of the cortex to another and a given lamina may be absent rom certain areas.
eg. Lamina 4 receives axons from the various sensory nuclei of the thalamus is prominent in all the primary sensory areas but absent from the motor cortex.
What is the spinal cord?
part of the CNS, within the spinal column. The spinal cord communicates with all sense organs and muscles except those of the head. It is a segmented structure and each segment has on each side a sensory nerve and a motor nerve.
What is the Bell-Magendie law?
the entering dorsal roots (axon bundles) carry sensory information and the exiting ventral roots carry motor information. The axons to and from the skin and the muscles are the peripheral nervous system. Note the cell bodies of the motor neurons are inside the spinal cord.
what is a dorsal root ganglia?
The cell bodies of the sensory neurons are in clusters of neurons outside the spinal cord.
What is inside the spinal cord?
There s an H shape which consists of the grey matter. Densely packed with cell bodies and dendrites. Many neurons of the spinal cord send axons from the gray matter to the brain or other parts of the spinal cord through the white matter,which consist of myelinated axons.
Why are the segments of the spinal cord important?
each segment sends sensory info to the brain and receives motor commands from the brain. All the information passes through tracts of axons in the spinal cord. if the spinal cord is cut at a given segment, the brain loses sensation from that segment and below. The brain loses moor control over all parts of the body serves by that segment ad the lower ones.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
It consists of neurons that receive info from and send commands to the heart, intestines and other organs. It has 2 parts, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems
What is the sympathetic nervous system responsible for?
The sympathetic nervous system is a network of nerves that prepare the organs for vigorous activity, consists of chains of ganglia just to the left and right o the spinal cord’s central regions (the thoracic and lumbar areas). These ganglia are connected by axons to the spinal cord. Sympathetic axons prepare the organs for fight or flight (increasing breathing, heart rate and decreasing digestive activity). Because the sympathetic ganglia are closely linked, they often act as a single system in sympathy with one another.
What receives only sympathetic input?
The sweat glands, the adrenal glands, the muscles that constrict blood vessels, and the muscles that erect the hairs of the skin.
What does the parasympathetic nervous system do?
It facilitates vegetative nonemergency responses. They are generally the opposite to the sympathetic responses. Generally both the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems are both active to varying degrees and many stimuli arouse parts of both systems.
Why is the parasympathetic nervous system also known as the craniosacral system?
Because it consists of the cranial nerves and nerves from the sacral spinal cord.
Describe the ganglia of the parasympathetic nervous system.
Unlike the ganglia in the sympathetic system, the parasympathetic ganglia are not arranged in a chain near the spinal cord. Rather long preganglionic axons extend from the spinal cord to parasympathetic ganglia close to each internal organ. Shorter postganglionic fibers then extend from the parasympathetic gsnglia into the organs. Because parasympathetic ganglia are not linked to one another,they act more independently. It works to conserve energy.
What neurotransmitters do the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems use?
The parasympathetic nervous systems’ postganglionic axons release acetylcholine. Most of the postganglionic synapses of the sympathetic nervous system use norepinephrine, although a few, like those that control the sweat glands use acetylcholine. Because the two systems use different neurotransmitters, certain drugs excite one system or the other.