Exam 1 Flashcards
What is neurulation?
• Central part of ectoderm differentiates into the neural plate; neural plate forms neural tube in 4th week; neural tube differentiates along dorsal/ventral (primary and secondary neurulation) axis by growth signaling factors (Shh from notochord and BMP from ectoderm)
What is primary neurulation?
• Involves columnarization of an existing epithelium, and the rolling or folding the epithelium
What is secondary neurulation?
• Characterized by condensation of mesenchyme to form a rod, which then undergoes an epithelial transition to form the neural tube
How does neural tube close?
• As a result of five separate waves of closure (rather than a simple two-way zipper-like action) during days 19-21
Where does neural tube closure begin?
• In the region of brain stem and upper spinal cord, followed by head and neck
Where does the final closure of the neural tube occur?
• In caudal region where the sacral part of the spinal cord (formed by secondary neurulation) fuses with the rest of the spinal cord (formed by primary neurulation)
What must close for complete CNS formation?
• Rostral and caudal neuropores
What is anencephaly?
• Lack of skull and cerebrum formation, with a brain stem intact; due to failure of wave two closure
What is spina bifida?
• Incomplete formation of both the spinal cord and the overlying vertebrae which remain unfused and open; variable degreed of severity (occulta, meningocele, myelomeningocele); due to incomplete closure of caudal neuropore, located at the junction of waves 1 and 5 (representing the junction of primary and secondary neurulation)
What differentiates the CNS regions?
• Dilations and flexures of neural tube
What are the CNS regions?
- Hindbrain: medulla, pons; myelencephalon, metencephalon
- Midbrain: mesencephalon
- Diencephalon: thalamus, hypothalamus, epithalamus
- Telencephalon: cerebral hemispheres
What becomes of the neural tube space?
• Spinal canal and ventricles of brain stem and cerebral hemispheres
What do rostral and caudal mean?
• Rostral (toward front of brain); caudal (toward spinal cord)
What forms the 3 vesicle stage?
• Prosencephalon (forebrain); mesencephalon; rhombencephalon (hindbrain); spinal cord
What form the 5 vesicle stage?
• Prosencephalon (telencephalon, optic vesicle, diencephalon); mesencephalon; pons (metencephalon); medulla (myelencephalon); spinal cord
What is cephalic flexure?
• Related to cranial base flexion; ensure that optical axes are at right angles to vertebral column
What is pontine flexure?
• Areas of 4th ventricle and pons enlarge; cerebellum derived from edge of pons
What are the subdivisions of the spinal cord?
• Dorsal and ventral roots; Grey matter: divided into sensory, autonomic, and motor areas; while matter: divided into ascending and descending tracts
How is the grey matter of the spinal cord designated?
• Rexed’s lamina are functionally specific areas of gray matter: dorsal (sensory); intermediate (autonomic); ventral (motor)
What are the neurons of the dorsal horn?
• Sensory; afferents convey tactile, proprioceptive, pain and temperature sensations to neurons into lamina 2-5; second order neurons send information to local spinal areas as well as ascend to brain stem and thalamus
What are the neurons of the intermediate region?
• Autonomic; site of preganglionic autonomic neurons (visceral motor, WM)
What are the neurons of the ventral horn?
• Motor; efferent motor neurons project to skeletal muscle groups
How is the white matter of the spinal cord designated?
• Separated into dorsal, central, and lateral funiculi; spinal tracts within white matter are formed by axons of ascending and descending neurons
What is the dorsal funiculus?
• Dorsal columns (cuneate and gracile fasciculi) carry tactile info to brain stem and thalamus
What is the lateral funiculus?
• Lateral corticospinal tract- major descending motor tract from cortex; spinocerebellar tracts- tactile and proprioceptive information to cerebellum; anterolateral system conveys pain and temperature to thalamus
What is the ventral funiculus?
• Anterior (ventral) corticospinal- descending motor pathways from cortex; vestibulospinal and reticulospinal- descending motor pathways from brain stem
What is the propiospinal tract?
• Surrounds gray matter and interconnects various spinal levels
What are the parts of the brain stem?
• Medulla, pons, midbrain
What are the nervous centers/ structures in the midbrain?
• Regulatory centers for respiratory, cardiovascular, GI systems, etc; cranial nerves; sensory and motor pathways; reticular formation
What are the physical features of the cerebellum?
• Located on dorsal side of pons and medulla; cerebellar peduncles: input and output tracts between cerebellum and pons
What is the function of the cerebellum?
• different regions regulate muscle coordination, motor planning and procedural memory, as well as balance and eye movements
What are the structures in the midbrain?
• Substantia nigra (DA modulation of motor control); periaqueductal grey (PAG; regulates pain/ stress response); superior (vision) and inferior (hearing) colliculi; red nucleus (part of descending motor pathway)
What is a cerebral peduncle?
• Found in midbrain; sensory and motor pathways to and from spinal cord, brain stem and cortex
What are the nuclear regions of the diencephalon?
• Thalamus and hypothalamus are both paired structures that flank the third ventricle; epithalamus contains pineal gland
What is the function of the thalamus?
• Several nuclei that process and distribute sensory and motor information to and from the cerebral cortex
What are the structures of the hypothalamus?
• Nuclei; pituitary (anterior and posterior)
What is the anterior pituitary?
• Aka adenohypophysis; derived from ectoderm primordial (Rathke’s pouch from primitive oral cavity); portal system of vessels extend from hypothalamus into anterior pituitary
What is the posterior pituitary?
• Aka neurohypophysis; derived from neural tube; neurosecretory neuronal axons extend into posterior pituitary to release hormones into blood
What are the structures of the cerebral cortex?
• Frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes; insula; central sulcus (separates frontal and parietal lobes); lateral fissure (separates frontal and temporal lobes
What does the frontal lobe do?
• Motor cortex: primary, premotor, supplementary, Broca’s speech area
What does parietal lobe do?
• Somatosensory cortex: primary, secondary, association, Wernicke’s language area
What does temporal lobe do? Occipital?
- Auditory cortex: primary, secondary, association
* Visual cortex: primary, secondary, association
What does the insula do?
• Gustatory, visceral, emotional cortex within lateral sulcus/fissure
What is the reticular formation?
• Nuclei along medial axis of brain stem; neurons receive general sensory input; project to cortex, limbic structures and spinal cord (pretty much everything); often characterized by use of particular neurotransmitter; associated with arousal, attention, motivation and wakefulness, etc (reticular activating system)
What are the structures of the basal ganglia?
• Caudate and putamen (striatum); globus pallidus (GP; both striatum and GP are embedded within central white matter); substantia nigra and subthalamus (located in midbrain)
What are the structures of the limbic system?
• C-shaped cluster of structures that extends into temporal lobe: limbic cortex (orbital and medial prefrontal cortex; cingulate gyrus; parahippocampal gyrus); anterior and medial dorsal thalamic nuclei; hippocampus; amygdala; ventral striatum (ventral basal ganglia) includes nucleus accumbens
Where does the hippocampus project?
• In the temporal lobe, projects medially toward hypothalamus and other structures
What structures of white matter axon bundles interconnect cortical regions?
• Bundles such as superior longitudinal and occipitofrontal fasciculi interconnect cortices, along longitudinal axis; arcuate fibers interconnect local gyri; corpus callosum interconnects left and right hemispheres (visualized by diffusion tensor imaging (MRI of subtle water currents around axons))
What is the relations of sensation and perception?
• Closely related, but have distinct qualities that set them apart; information obtained through collector, receptor, transmission, and coding mechanisms; complement each other to create meanings from what we experience, but two completely different ways of how we interpret out world
What is the definition of sensation?
• Stimulation of a sensory receptor which produces neural impulses that brain interprets as a specific sense, etc; when sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in environment; sensory receptors then convert this energy into neural impulses and send to brain
What is the definition of perception?
• When the brain organizes the information and translates/interprets into something meaningful (selective attention) or that can be rationalized by us; how one “receives” this feeling or thought, and gives meaning to it through memories and emotions; how our brain interprets a sensation
What does the survival of organisms depend on?
• Having adequate information about both the external and internal environments and how to respond or adapt to any changes; the old rule is “adapt or die”
What does sensation involve?
• Sensory receptors sampling small amounts of energy from the environment including mechanical (pressure, vibration, sound), temperature, light and chemical qualities, such as acidity
How is sensory info processed?
• At different levels of the CNS where it forms an internal representation of specific aspects of the external and internal world
What does the CNS activity do?
• produce feedback to regulate sensory activity at all levels including the receptors themselves; one reason for this is to maintain a tolerable range of sensory stimulation
What are the layers of the eyeball (or orbit)?
• Fibrous coat homologous to dura; vascular coat homologous to arachnoid and pia; nervous coat homologous to CNS
What is the fibrous coat?
• Sclera (dense, white CT where extrinsic eye muscles insert); cornea, continuous with sclera, transparent o allow light to project to retina (avascular, draws its nutrients from aqueous humor by diffusion)
What is the vascular coat/ Uvea / Uveal tract?
• Characterized by prolific vasculature; choroid layer of numerous anastomosing blood vessels; ciliary body/muscle that controls refraction of light by the lens; iris controls amount of light entering eye; uveitis
What is the neural coat?
• Retina
How do cornea and lens refract light from objects onto the retina?
• Have curvatures that refract radially separating rays of light at different degrees; causes the light rays to converge back to a point; most refraction don by cornea (2/3; but this is a fixed structure); remaining refraction done variably by lens
What are the layers of the cornea?
• Epithelium (stratified squamous, non-keratinizing); Bowman’s (basement) membrane: reduces spread of infections, can’t regenerate; Stroma: fibroblasts that generate orthogonal lamellae of collagen fibers; Descemet’s (basement) membrane; endothelium: simple squamous, conveys metabolic substances and water from aqueous humor into the cornea
Where does the corneal epithelium come from?
• Epithelial cells arise from stem cells in adjacent corneoscleral limbus;
How is the cornea replenished?
• daughter stem/ transient amplifying cells (TACs) divide and migrate towards the central cornea to replenish the epithelium, which rests on Bowman’s layer;
How is the cornea protected from UV light?
• DNA protected from UV by nuclear ferritin
How does LASIK work?
• Laser beam reshapes the cornea
Describe the physical of the lens. How is it held in place?
• Clear, avascular and dependent on diffusion of nutrients; held in place by suspensory ligaments: zonule fibers extend from ciliary body to the equatorial perimeter of the lens, maintain resting tension
How is the resting convexivity of the lens maintained?
• Outward pull of suspensory ligaments from the ciliary body; inward pull by intrinsic elastic fibers
What do the intrinsic elastic fibers of the lens capsule do?
• Produce an inherent tendency to bulge, i.e. increase the convexivity of the lens
What are the structures of the lens?
• Capsule is elastic (collagen IV and glycoprotein); germinal zone produces new cells during life; after migration from germinal zone, cells lose their nuclei and become transparent
What is presbyopia?
• Far-sightedness; the age-related loss of resting convexivity caused by loss of elasticity
What are cataracts?
• Reduction of vision due to opaqueness of the lens; oxidative damage, iron-catalyzed free radical reactions; higher iron levels in older and cataractous lenses
How does the lens control light refraction?
• By changing its convexivity; increased convexivity focuses light from a closer source for “near vision”, while decreased from a more distant source (far vision)
What is the ciliary muscle?
• Accommodation=alters convexivity of lens; actively relax tension of suspensory ligs
How does ciliary muscle change the convexivity of lens?
• It is a sphincter, so contraction will increase convexivity
How does convexivity of lens impact close or far vision?
• Convexivity helps see up close; needs to be less convex to see far away
Where does the lens focus light to?
• Onto a point on the retina; light from nearby sources diverges more and requires greater refraction and lens contraction; light from far sources is close to parallel and requires lees refraction by lens
What does eyeball length determine?
• Where the lens focuses the light; corrected by extra lenses
What is myopia and hyperopia?
- Myopia: near sighted; eyeball is too long and light is focused in front of the retina
- Hyperopia: far sighted; eyeball is too short and light is focused behind retina
Where does the aqueous humor come from?
• Ciliary processes secrete humor into anterior and posterior chambers
What is schlemm’s canal?
• Aka scleral venous sinus; absorbs humor into venous system
What is glaucoma?
• Buildup of fluid pressure due to inadequate drainage into schlemm’s canal; one cause is adherence of iris to lens blocking flow and causing iris to press against corneoscleral angle blocking access of aqueous to schlemm’s canal; intraocular pressure can damage optic nerve
What are the structures of the iris?
• Contains pigmented striations of CT, blood vessels and smooth muscle; stroma: CT with melanocytes, melanin absorbs and refracts different frequencies (colors); constrictor and dilator pupillae; pigmented epithelium: continuous on posterior surface of iris, completely absorbs all light restricting incoming light to within pupil
What is the stroma?
• Consists of CT plus radiating and circular patterns of blood vessels
Why is the sky blue?
• Rayleigh scattering (and red sunsets); atmospheric particles scatter blue light during day; at sunset, light takes longer path through atmosphere
What causes eye color?
• Genetic trait that involves distribution of melanin pigments in the iris; determined by different patterns of light refraction; there are no blue or green iris pigments
What causes blue eyes?
• Melanin is mostly on the deep surface of the iris; turbid medium of the stroma causes refraction of the blue part of spectrum and undergoes Rayleigh scattering; so eyes appear sky blue (but not direct effect of melanin)
How do you get brown or green eyes?
• Melanin is more evenly distributed through the iris CT changing the refractive indices of the stroma, plus causing more absorption and reflection of light by the pigments; varied refraction and reflection of the light spectrum produces more color possibilities
What are pigments?
• Absorb some part of the light spectrum, and reflect the rest, giving its color; if everything is absorbed, nothing is reflected=black
Why is melanin brown?
• Brown is a mix of black, red and yellow; melanin absorbs blue/green side, allowing reflection of yellow and red; the more pigment, the more absorption leading to very dark brown or black
What is the purpose of the iris?
• Determines how much light enters the eye by controlling the aperture of the pupil; sphincter pupillae (constricts pupil and reduces incoming light, parasympathetic); dilator pupillae (opens pupil and increases incoming light; sympathetic)
What does pupil size determine?
• Regulate light intensity; focal range: smaller pupils increase the range of focus, wider pupils decrease it
What is the parasympathetic activity of the lens and iris?
• Parasympathetic neurons travel along the oculomotor nerve (CN III); ciliary ganglion is a parasympathetic ganglion located near the posterior surface of the eyeball (project postganglionic neurons along eyeball)
What is the sympathetic activity of lens and iris?
• Arises from thoracic levels of the spinal cord; superior cervical ganglion consists of postganglionic neurons that project axons along arteries to the iris
How does the oculomotor nerve get to the eye?
• Enters superior orbital fissure along with CN IV and VI
What do parasympathetics do?
• Constrict the pupil and contract the lens
Where are parasympathetic preganglionic neurons?
• Located within Edinger-Westphal nucleus, one of the nuclei of the oculomotor nerve in midbrain
What do the postganglionic neurons in the ciliary ganglion activate?
• Sphincter pupillae to constrict pupil; ciliary muscle to contract lens
What is the pupillary light reflex?
• Maintains homeostatic level of light entering eye; melanopsin ganglion cells in retina respond to ambient light; ganglion cells activate pretectum and Edinger-Westphal nuclei in midbrain; pretectal nucleus coordinates both eyes; reflexive constriction of both pupils maintains homeostatic level of light entering the eye
What is the consensual pupillary response?
• Constriction of both pupils in response to light shone in one eye: Light melanopsin ganglion cells pretectal n. E-W nucleus ciliary ganglion pupil (both??)
What does sympathetic activity do? Via what pathway?
• Increases light entry into eye; preganglionic neurons in T1,2 innervate superior cervical ganglion (SCG) cells; postganglionic SCG neurons activate dilator pupillae to open pupil (NB: no sympathetic control of ciliary muscle/lens) and tarsal muscle to raise upper eyelid
How is sympathetic control of the iris and upper eyelid regulated?
• Local reflexes; descending influences from the limbic system and hypothalamus during an emotional state
What is the tarsal muscle?
• Smooth muscle just deep to the levator palpebrae superioris and attaches to the tarsal plate in the eyelid; innervated sympathetically to raise upper eyelid in emotional states;
What can inhibit the tarsal muscle?
• Damage to some elements of the sympathetic nervous system, causing a drooping eyelid (ptosis). This is seen in Horners’s syndrome
What are eye floaters?
• Black or gray specks, strings or cobwebs that drift when you move your eyes; age-related changes as the vitreous humor becomes more liquid leading to depolymerization of collagen; collagen fiber bundles within the vitreous humor clump together and cast shadows on your retina, i.e floaters
What is the vitreous body and humor?
• Vitreous body is clear gel-like fluid contains hyaluronic acid and type II collagen fibrils that are slowly replaced (99% water)
What is the hyaloid canal?
• The vestige of hyaloid artery used to nourish embryonic lens; blood and cell debris is removed by local phagocytes, but residual pieces of hyaloid artery remain as a type of “floater”
What is the eyeball derived from?
• Embryonic brain; neural tube is derived and separated from ectoderm and extends the length of the embryo; rostral part forms the cerebral hemispheres including the eyes; neural tube contacts ectoderm from which lens placode forms
What is the neural retinal layer derived form? Pigmented retinal layer? Lens?
- Neural: Optic vesicle; neurons and photoreceptors
- Pigmented: Optic vesicle; retinal pigment epithelium, PRE
- Lens from ectoderm, not neural tissue
What is the sclera and choroid derived form?
• Embryonic meningeal tissues
What surrounds the optic nerve?
• Dura, arachnoid, pia and subarachnoid space
What is the hyaloid artery?
• Nourishes vitreous body and lens; degenerates postnatally, leaving a hyaloid canal and remnants of the artery