Exam 5: February 13 - February 17 Flashcards
what are the parts of the central nervous system?
brain and spinal cord
what are the parts of the brain?
cerebellum, diencephalon, and cerebrum
what does the cerebellum look like?
like coral or a ball of yarn
what are the functions of the cerebellum?
1) balance and coordination of muscle activities
2) muscle tone
how does the cerebellum help with balance and coordination of muscle activities?
so complex activities instead of having to individually work, the cerebellum kind of sorta does a feedforward type process and is proactive about the idea that if I have to stand up the same sort of muscles need to work
knows which muscles need to be involved and gets them involved
how does the cerebellum help with muscle tone?
if there’s damage to the cerebellum, muscles don’t get engaged as much as they would so muscle tone gets lost
what is the diencephalon?
it’s a two part brain component that is one area but has two distinct parts that each have their own functions as well
what are the two parts of the diencephalon?
thalamus and hypothalamus
what does the thalamus do?
part of the diencephalon that controls your movements
major relay station for motor control to get messages off to the muscles
also a major relay station for crude level sensation
how does the thalamus help with crude level sensation?
your thalamus is a major relay station for crude level sensation
visual goes through your thalamus so it registers big things about your visual like is there something moving in my field of vision? Is there something moving that could attack me or is there something I could eat?
Another crude sensation it picks up on is sound so really loud sound or high pitched sound
where is the hypothalamus located?
it’s located below the thalamus
“hypo”
what is the function of the hypothalamus? how does it accomplish it?
part of the diencephalon that maintains homeostatic regulation
helps get the appropriate things activated to get us back to steady state
it does this by being the link between the nervous system, registering those change, realizing we’ve moved away from steady state and realizing we need to activate the endocrine system to get us back to steady state
what is the cerebrum? what are the components of the cerebrum?
cerebral cortex
it’s 80% of your brain by weight and volume
what is the cerebral cortex? what does it look like?
often times it will get equated to be the cerebrum but this isn’t exactly true – it’s an outer shell (cortex)
it’s highly convoluted, it’s not a smooth surface, it’s ridged like how you imagine the brain, it’s coral looking – convoluted shape gives us more surface area which gives us more function since it’s the outer layer – high function within space
what are the parts of the cerebral cortex?
1) matters
2) corpus callosum
3) ventricles
4) basil nuclei
what are the types of matter in the cerebral cortex?
grey and white matter
if you crack open your skull your brain looks grey on the outside and the white is deeper inside
axons are insulated with myelin to increase speed of communication – white parts of steak are lipids so there are probably going to be more cell bodies that don’t have a lot of oligodendricites – there’s going to be more myelin on the inside
what is the corpus callosum?
when you look at your cerebral cortex it’s actually two groupings brought together which is your left and right hemisphere – your corpus callosum is a massive bundle of axon that helps your two
it’s white matter and it’s in the middle of your brain
what are ventricles?
4 fluid filled chambers
when you get a headache it’s because n has changed. Since V is constant, P must increase to accommodate for the decrease in n which is what gives you a headache. drinking water helps because you can restore the number of molecules of water in the ventricles and decrease the temperature
what are the functions of the cerebral cortex?
1) perception
2) voluntary movement
3) language and learning
how does the cerebral cortex help with voluntary movement?
the ability to control where your skeletal muscles are in space
when you have a stroke it damages the cells of the cerebral cortex which is why a lot of people lose the ability to move
how does the cerebral cortex help with language?
another function is language so again after a stroke people can’t understand things or lose the ability to talk
how does the cerebral cortex help with learning and memory?
the cc is what makes you you!
if you damage this area you take away features that define you and differentiate you from the person next to you
so when people say they’re brain-dead they aren’t actually, it’s because their cc is no longer functioning
what are the components of the forebrain?
cerebrum + diencephalon
aka thalamus + hypothalamus + cerebrum
how is the spinal cord protected?
vertebrae and processes
the spinal cord needs protection because we don’t want to damage it and lose our ability to gather and send information