Healthy Nervous System Flashcards
What does Merkel’s disk sense and where is it located?
What type of receptors?
- light pressure, texture
- Near epidermal border
Slowly adapting
What do free nerve endings sense in the skin and where are they located?
warm, cold, itch, pain
(The free endings respond to thermal (hot or cold) stimuli, noxious chemical or mechanical stimuli irritants that provoke ‘itch’)
Epidermal border
What do Meissner’s Corpuscles sense and where are they located ?
What type of receptors are they?
Light touch/stroking of the skin
Upper dermis/Epidermal border
Quick adapting
Where are hair follicle receptors located and what do they sense?
Hair follicles in dermis
Movement
Where are Pacacian corpuscles located and what do they sense?
What type of receptor?
Hypodermis
Vibration
Quick acting
What do Ruffini’s endings sense and where they located?
What type of receptor?
Skin stretch
Sub dermal fat
Slow adapting
What is the sensory modality of A-Beta fibres, what is their diameter and conduction velocity?
light touch, pressure, vibration
about 10-15 microM
about 25-80 m/s
What is the sensory modality of A-delta fibres, what is their diameter and conduction velocity?
Heat, cold, noiception (nausea)
about 2-5 microM,
about 2-25 m/s
What is the sensory modality of C fibres, what is their diameter and conduction velocity?
Heat, cold, nocioception, itch (aching)
< 1 microM
< 1m/s
What are SNAPs?
sensory neuron action potentials
What is an Electroencephalogram (EEG)?
‘electrodes’ on the scalp (usually) sample the extracellular electrical potential from the surface of the cortex. This is an average of mostly asynchronous nerve activity in the cerebral cortex but some synchronous activity gives rise to identifiable wave patterns at frequencies that are characteristic of specific behaviours
What does a EEG delta activity signify and what is its wave frequency?
Delta (< 4 Hz) - deep sleep
What does a EEG Theta activity signify and what is its wave frequency?
some sleep states (e.g. non REM sleep), dozy
< 4 - 7 Hz
What does a EEG Alpha activity signify and what is its wave frequency?
quiet, awake
< 8 - 13 Hz
What does a EEG Beta activity signify and what is its wave frequency?
activated cortex (e.g. intense mental activity, REM sleep) > 13 Hz
What is DSM IV?
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Association of Psychiatry)
What is ICD-10?
World Health Organization (International Classification of Diseases) classifications includes psychiatric disorders
What is neurology?
Diagnosis and treatment of neural dysfunction: the emphasis is on direct identification or deduction of physical causes and rational therapy
What is psychiatry?
Diagnosis and treatment of mental dysfunction: the emphasis is on psychological, social and behavioural causes though physical measurements are sometimes taken. Therapy is pragmatic and experiential.
What is psychology
The study of processes underlying mental function including experimental and clinical approaches to the understanding of higher order brain functions such as dictate personality
Where are the 2 enlargements along the spinal cord?
Where the major plexuses of the limbs arise
2 significant points about the ventricles
- site of choroid plexus
* cerebrospinal fluid/blood fluid/blood barrier
Where do motor neurones arise from the spinal cord?
ventral/anterior part of spinal cord
At what vertebral level should a lumbar puncture be performed?
L3/4 or L4/5
Why is the hindbrain (pons and medulla) important?
- cranial nerves pons and medulla sensory and motor for head
- hearing, balance (vestibulocochlear nuclei)
- major tracts ascending & descending
- inputs to cerebellum (pons)
- breathing
What is the cerebellum responsible for?
- posture, eye movements, spinal motor, vestibular nuclei
- body position versus motor commands cortex (via thalamus)
- motor learning motor learning
- measuring, timing
- Ataxia
What is the midbrain responsible for?
posterior/dorsal posterior/dorsal • colliculi (vision/hearing)
anterior/ventral
• oculomotor nuclei
• dopaminergic neurons
eye movement defects
Parkinson’s disease
Unconciuos reflex of turning head to flash/large sound etc
Important units about the thalamus?
- dorsal diencephalon
- sensory relay to cortex
- reciprocal cortex-thalamus connectivity connectivity
- consciousness (Francis consciousness (Francis Crick)
- coma
Sensory info relayed to cortex
Gate keepr for information entering the cortex
- reciprocal connections with the cortex
Role of the basal ganglia?
- modulate cortex via thalamus
- cognitive reward, learning and motivation and motivation
- Huntington s and Parkinson’s Disease