Dr. Grubb Flashcards
Name the main types of neurones
1) Unipolar
2) Pseudo-unipolar cell
3) Bipolar cell
4) Multi-polar cells
Describe unipolar neurons
Single axon coming out of cell body
Describe bipolar cell
Both axon and dendrite coming out of the cell body
- E.g. retinal bipolar cell which connects photoreceptors at back of retina to ganglia cells at the front - interneurons
Describe multipolar cells
Axons and very highly-branches dendrites
- Spinal motor neuron
- Hippocampal pyramidal cell
- Purkinje cell of cerebellum - controlling fine movement, very intricate
Describe the pseudo-unipolar cell
- Central axons periferal branches
- Only one process out of the cell body
- Eg. Sensory nerves taking information to CNS from tissues skin deep tissue
What is an afferent nerve
carries information towards the CNS (sensory)
What is an efferant nerve
carries information towards the periphery (towards muscles, glands etc)
- Motor
What are interneurons?
- Within the CNS (excitatory, inhibitory, local, relay)
- Process sensory info and make decision
What are the three main types of glial cells?
1) Oligodendrocyte - myelination
2) Schwann cells- myelination
3) Astrocyte
Describe oligodendrocyte
- Only found in CNS (brain and spinal cord)
- It can send out processes that can wrap round 20-40 different axons
Describe schwann cell
- Peripheral nervous system sensory/motor nerves
- Wrap round nerves - single schwann cell per nerve
Describe Astrocyte
- Really important
- Support cell
- Several functions
- Connection between blood supply and neurons
- Movement of nutrients eg glucose from capillary to neuron
- Removal of waste products like broken down NTs
- Buffer NTs
- Take up K+ ions which can accumulate outside cells when neuronal activity is quite high
Name the 8 main functions of glial cells
Structural support
Axonal insulation
Removal of debris
Buffering of K+ ions
Removal of neurotransmitters
Guide axonal migration
Contribute to blood-brain barrier
Nutritive function
Describe neurulation
- Ectoderm called neural plate on dorsal surface of embryo is destined to become neural tissue
- Neural plate envaginates to form the neural groove
- Neural groove pinches off and becomes internalised to neural tube
- Neural crest cells migrate to form peripheral ganglia - separate nerve cells
- Brain forms from ectoderm (same as skin)
What does endoderm form
Gut, liver, lungs
What does mesoderm form
Connective tissue, blood vessels and muscles
What does the ectoderm form
CNS and peripheral nervous systems, epidermis (skin)
What is spina bifida
- Incorrect invagination
- Improper closure of neural fold
- Abnormality at base of spinal cord
What different type of cells do neural crest cells develop into?
- Melanocyte
- Glial
- Sensory
- Sympathoadrenal
- Parasympathetic
- Entoric
What is cehalisation
- Neural tube to three vesicle stage - forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain
- ## Five vesicle stage
Name the two flexure types
- Cephalic
- Cervical
(- Pontline (in 5 vesicle))
What will the following become when developed?
1) 1a
2) 1b
3) 2
4) 3a
5) 3b
6) 4 - Lowest area
1) Cerebral cortex
2) Thalamus and hypothalamus
3) Midbrain - pain control
4) Pons and cerebellum (‘little brain’) - linking to motor function
5) Medulla oblongata - vegetative functions
6) Spinal cord
What is the corpus callosum
Carries information from the left side to the right side of the brain for you to integrate functions between each side
What is interesting about the growth rate of the spinal cord and vertebre
The spinal cord doesn’t grow as fast - bottom of the cord is then further up the vertebral column
Cauda equina - horses tail ‘leash of nerves’
Name 6 types of sensory neurones
- Mechanoreception, pain, temperature, proprioception - limbs and trunk
- Proprioception - jaw
- Olfaction
- Gustation
- Audition, Vestibular labyrinth
- Vision
What is a dorsal root ganglia
- Single unipolar neuron in the human body CNS, pseudo-unipolar
- Cell body with single axon then central branch going into spinal cord and axon with terminal
- All sensory neurons have this basic structure
Name the layers of skin
- Dermis
- Epidermis (separated by the epidermal-dermal junction)
- Hairy/Glabrous ( with papillary ridges & septa of the stratum corneum) skin
Name the nerves that innervate skin
- Hair receptors - wrap round the end of hairs to detect movement
- Meissner’s corpuscle - detect pressure
- Ruffini’s corpuscle - detect pressure but deeper
- Pacinian corpuscles - detect vibrations (low frequency)
- Bare nerve endings - fine myelinated and unmyelinated nerves at the top which - pain detection - no specialisation
- Merkel’s receptor - superficial - only in hairy skin
State the ABC nerve fibre types and their function
Aalpha - Motor - somatic, proprioception Abeta - Touch, pressure, vibration Agamma - Motor, spindles Adelta - Pain - reflex, temp B - Pregangllionic sympathtic C (Dorsal Root) - Pain - slow pain, dull ache, inflammation, sensitised nerve endings C (Symp) - postganglionic synpathtic
How does velocity and axon diameter change going down the list?
They get smaller diameters meaning smaller in velocity
What are all A fibres?
Myelinated
State the numerical classification of just sensory nerves (number - ABC class - size - modality - diameter - conduction velocity)
I - Aalpha - Large - proprioceptive - 13 to 20 - 80 to 120
II - Abeta - medium - touch, pressure - 6 to 12 - 25 to 75
III - Adelta - small - pain (fast), temperature - 1 to 5 - 5 to30
IV - C - pain (slow) - 0.2 to 1.5 - 0.5 to 2.5
Describe nociceptor endings
- Pain endings
- Poorly differentiated
- Contain varicosities (small swellings) containing many mitochondria
- Between varicosities are thin axonal threads containing neurofilaments
Describe types of thermal nociceptors (4)
1) Cool receptors - Adelta/III - skin cooling - 25 celsius
2) Warm receptors - Adelta/III - skin warming - 41 celsius
3) Heat nociceptors - C/IV - hot temperatures - 46 to 52 celsius
4) Cold nociceptors - C/IV - cold temperatures -
Describe the responses of nerve to two different stimuli
1) Rapidly adapting - pacinian corpuscle - one action potential when stimulus is applied, one when released as layers slide over each other
2) Slowly adapting - pain receptors - burst of AP which slows down but is maintained for stimulus duration
How can you measure density of innervation?
Two-point discrimination test
- bring pins closer and closer as whether they think its one or two pins
Which corpuscle detects higher frequencies, Meissner’s or pacinian?
Pacinian - it is found lower in the skin
Why are we segmental
Came from segmental ancestors
- nerves come from left and right into each vertebrae of the spine
- Pairs of nerves at each segment
What happens to thermo & mechano-nociceptors following tissue damage
- Damaged tissue releases inflammatory mediators via WBH or mast cells (histamine)
- Some bind to receptors on the sensory nerve endings to change its sensitivity to different stimuli - eg tooth sensitive to heat, biting
- through signalling pathways they become sensitised to mechanical or thermal stimuli of transducer
- Ion channel thermal transducer
- PRIMARY HYPERALGESIA
Name 6 inflammatory mediators
- PGs - prostaglandins - PGE(little 2), PGI(little two)
- Bradykinin
- 5-HT - serotonin
- Histamine
- Neuropeptides
- Purines eg. ATP
Why do receptive fields overlap?
The overlap of receptive fields allows us to detect the precise position of stimuli on the skin surface.
Describe the prostaglandin synthesis pathway
Membrane phospholipids—-cPLA(little2) Ca2+ dependant—>Arachidonic acid—–Cox-1 constitutive, Cox-2 inducible—-> PGG(little2)/PGH(little2) which makes:
- PGI(little2) - Prostacyclin
- PGE(little2)
- PGD(little2)
- PGF(little2alpha)
What do prostaglandins do?
- Sensitisation
- Excitation
Name the function of:
1) PGE2
2) PGI2
1) PGE2 sensitises nerve endings to mechanical and thermal stimuli
2) PGI2 directly excites a subpopulation of nociceptors ALSO sensitises nerve endings to mechanical and thermal stimuli
Mechanism of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
- Group of drugs most widely sold - aspirin, ibuprofen
- Inhibit Cox 1 and 2 as Cox 1 is enhanced in damaged tissues meaning reduced synthesis of prostaglandin
- Upregulation of Cox 2
- This means less hyperalgesia thus decreasing pain
Where are the cell bodies of sensory neurons contained
Dorsal root ganglion
Name the 5 spinal regions and their number of segments
- 8 Cervical segments
- 12 Thoracic segment
- 5 Lumbar segments
- 5 Sacral segments
- 3 Coccygeal segments
(Curvy, Thick Ladies Suck Cock)
Describe segmental dermatomes
- Dermatome maps show the innervation territory of all nerve fibres entering the spinal cord at a single segmental level.
- Originally investigated by looking at responses to a stimulation of different parts of the body
Name the structures of the brain (9)
Cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, thalamus, midbrain, cerebellum, pons, medulla, spinal cord
What is in gray, white matter and the spinal cord
Gray matter contains neuronal cell bodies and some axons
White matter carries axons (white due to myelin)
Spinal cord has fluid-filled central canal
What is the difference between the dorsal and ventral root?
Dorsal carries sensory information in whereas ventral is the one that carries motor information out
Which part of the spinal cord is sensory and which motor?
Posterior - sensory
Anterior - motor
What is the small swelling on the dorsal root?
Dorsal root ganglion - all the cell bodies from sensory pseudounipolar cells are found here
Why’s white matter white?
Myelination