CNS- Structure and Function W3 Flashcards
What are the functions of the nervous system?
Control of the internal environment
Voluntary control of movement
Spinal cord reflexes
Assimilation of experiences necessary for memory and learning
What does control of the internal environment involve?
Perceiving and responding to events in the interval/external environment
Where is the CNS?
Brain and spinal cord
Where is the PNS?
Neurons outside the CNS
What is the sensory division?
Afferent fibres which transmit impulses from receptors to CNS
What is the motor division?
Efferent fibres transmit impulses from CNS to effector organs
What is the somatic sensory?
Sensor input that is consciously perceived from receptors (eyes, ears and skin)
What is the visceral sensory?
Sensory input that is not consciously perceived from receptors of blood vessels and internal organs (heart)
What is the somatic motor?
Motor output that is consciously or voluntarily controlled; effector is skeletal muscle
What is the autonomic motor?
Motor output that is not consciously or is involuntarily controlled
Effectors are cardiac muscle, smooth muscle and glands
What part of the nervous system is input?
Sensory Nervous System
Somatic Sensory
Visceral Sensory
What part of the nervous system is output?
Motor Nervous System
Somatic Motor
Autonomic Motor
What is the sensory nervous system?
Detects stimuli and transmits information from receptors to the CNS
What is the motor nervous system?
Initiates and transmits information from the CNS to effectors
What is an axon?
Carries electrical message (action potentials) away from cell body
Covered by Schwann cells
What are Schwann cells?
Form discontinuous myelin sheath along length of axon
What is a synapse?
Contact points between axon of one neuron and dendrite of another neuron
What causes a greater speed of neural transmission?
Increase in the diameter of an axon
Increase in myelin sheath
What type of tissue are neurons?
Excitable tissue
What is magnitude of rest potential determined by?
Permeability of plasma membrane to ions
Difference in ion concentrations across membranes (Na+, K+, Cl- and Ca+2)
What is the negative charge of a cell at rest (polarised)?
-5 to -100mv
-40 to -75mv in neurons
How is the exchange of sodium and potassium across cell membranes maintained?
Maintained by sodium-potassium pump
What does the Na+/K+ pump do during the exchange of sodium and potassium across cell membrane?
Moves 2 K+ in and 3 Na+ out
Potassium tends to diffuse out of the cell
What is the all-or-none law for action potentials?
Once a nerve impulse is initiated, it will travel the length of the neuron
What is repolarisation in action potentials?
Returns to resting membrane potential
- K+ leaves the cell rapidly
- Na+ channels close
What is an action potential?
Occurs when a stimulus of a sufficient strength depolarises the cell
What does an action potential do?
Opens Na+ channels, and Na+ diffuses into the cell
Causes the inside of the cell to become more positive
What is a neurotransmitter?
Chemical messenger from presynaptic membrane
What does a neurotransmitter bind too?
A receptor on postsynaptic memrbane
What does a neurotransmitter cause?
Depolarization of postsynaptic membrane
What are the 2 types of neurotransmitter?
Excitatory (EPSP)
Inhibitory (IPSP)
How can EPSPs promote neural depolarization?
1) Temporal summation
2) Spatial summation