Homeostasis/brain & Spinal Cord Flashcards
What is homeostasis?
The condition of equilibrium in the body’s internal environment
What are the components of a feedback system?
Sensor ( thermo/chemoreceptors), set point (control centre eg. Brain stem), effector (response), regulated variable.
What is the gain of a regulated variable?
The precision by which a control system can prevent deviation from homeostasis
Gain = amount of correction needed / amount of abnormality after correction
Is a large or small gain better to maintain homeostasis ?
A large gain indicates that it has a more sensitive regulation that better maintains normal conditions.
What is a negative feedback loop?
Acts to reduce an effect
eg. Body temperature, when bt decreases -shivering occurs which increases heat production to return body temp towards original value.
What is a positive feedback loop.?
Acts to increase an effect
Eg. Blood clotting
Feed forward loops are physiological responses in anticipation of a change in a variable.
What is the difference between a reflex and local response.?
A reflex response requires knowledge from an integrating centre and a circuitry that connects receptor to effector.
A local response allows individual part of the body to self regulate their responses to certain conditions.
What’s the difference between the somatic and autonomic nervous system?
Autonomic - involuntary, controls smooth muscle & endocrine glands. Conducts impulses from CNS to effectors. Subdivided into para and sympathetic nervous systems.
Somatic - voluntary, conducts impulses from CNS to skeletal muscles.
What does the parasympathetic nervous system do?
Constricts pupils
Stimulates salivations digestion/bile secretion
Slows heart rate
Constricts bronchi
What does the sympathetic nervous system do?
Dilates pupils
Inhibits salivation / digestion/contractions of bladder
Increases heart rate
Dilates bronchi
What makes up the CNS?
Brain
Spinal cord
Brain stem
What makes up the PNS?
31 pairs of spinal nerves
Motor neurones
Sensory neurons
Ganglion
What are the 2 types of cells of the nervous system?
- Neurones - nerve cells
- glial cells - non-neuronal cells, maintain homeostasis, form myelin & support neurones.
How is information passed within neurones?
Electrically, from cell body to axon terminals via an action potential.
How is info passed between neurones?
Chemically, calcium causes neurotransmitter in synaptic vesicles to be released into the synaptic cleft, and picked up by receptors on dendrite, is above threshold, neurone Fires an action potential.
What are the 5 types of glial cells?
Schwann cells
Oligodendrocyte
Microglial cells
Ependymal cells
Astrocyte
What is the function of astrocyte cells?
- Regulate chemicals around neurones
- regulate blood flow around the brain
- Nervous system repair- creating glial scars
- maintenance of the blood-brain barrier
Where does oligodendrocytes form myelin sheath?
Axons in the CNS,
Myelin is a fatty protein rich sheath around as axons
Can myelinate up to 50 axons
What do Schwann cells do?
- Form myelin in PNS
- assist in regeneration & regrowth of axons
- myelin allows axon potentials to propagate more quickly.
What’s the function of the microglia?
- brains immune system - savage the CNS for plaque, damaged cells & infected agents
What are ependymal Cells?
Make up the ependyma membrane lining of the central canal of spinal cord. They produce cerebrospinal fluid.
What 3 parts make up the brainstem?
Medulla
Pons
Cerebellum
Label the basic structures of the brain
Spinal cord
Brainstem
Midbrain
Thalamus
Basal ganglia
Cerebral cortex
What does the medulla oblongata do?
Via chemoreceptors →
-Controls cardiac functions - heart rate & blood pressure
- respiration-breathing rate
- reflexes - vomiting, coughing
What does the pons do?
Contains nuclei that relay signals from forebrain to cerebellum - nuclei that deal with: sleep, respiration, swallowing, bladder control, hearing etc.
What does the cerebellum do?
Maintenance of balance & posture
Coordination of movements- across multiple joints
Motor learning
What does the midbrain do?
- Tectum - controls rapid orientation of the head & neck.
→ superior colliculus - vision
→ inferior colliculus - sound - substantia nigra- parkinsons disease - also associated with sleep, wake cycles, alertness & temp regulation
What does the thalamus do?
Takes info from periphery to the cortex
Hypothalamus - hormones, metabolic control eg. Body temp
What does the basal ganglia do?
A series of interconnected nuclei
- movement regulation, skill learning, habit formation, selection of appropriate behaviours
( programmed movements)
What does the cerebral cortex do?
Movement
Attention
perception
Awareness
Thought
Memory
Language
Consciousness
What is the spinal cord?
First point of call for info going into & out of the CNS
What is the spinal cord?
First point of call for info going into & out of the CNS
In the spinal cord is gray matter on the inside or outside ?
Inside, white matter on outside
Name the layers of the spinal cord?
Cervical (c)
Thoracic (t)
Lumbar (L)
Sacral (s)
What is gray matter?
Neurones & other cells
What is white matter?
Fibres that carry info up & down the cord.
Why is there less white matter in the lower sections of the spinal cord than in the cervical?
Fibres join the tract above the sacral and send into up & out of the brain via the cervical, so more fibres are at the cervical top region of the spinal cord than at the sacral.
Where is sensory info localised in the spinal cord?
The dorsal horn
- info such as fine touch, proprioception, pain & temp.
Where are motor neurons localised in the spinal cord?
The ventral horn ( bottom)
- these make direct contact with the muscles (effectors), stimulation of these neurons causes movement.
What is somatotopy?
Spatial map of the body. Eg. Adjacent neurons in neural tissue respond selectively to stimuli presented to adjacent locations on the body.
What are the 2 major descending systems of the spinal cord?
Lateral & medial descending systems.
What tracts make up the lateral descending system of the spinal cord?
Corticospinal tract (goes to cortex & comes from spine)
Rubrospinal tract
Where are fibres of the lateral descending system of the spinal cord found & where do they connect to?
Fibres are in the dorsolateral ( top- outer-side) of the spinal cord.
They connect to motor neurons in the lateral part of the ventral hom - this controls lateral parts of the body eg. Legs & arms.
What do the corticospinal & rubrospinal tracts do?
Corticospinal tract strongly influences all body movement.
Rubrospinal tract can compensate almost completely for the loss descending corticospinal input.
However, the ability to use fingers individually cannot be compensated for - this is the sole province of the corticospinal system .
What 2 tracts make up the medial descending system of the spinal cord ?
Vestibulospinal & reticulospinal tracts
Where are fibres of the medial descending system of the spinal cord found a where do they connect?
Fibres are in the ventro-medial ( bottom-middle) part of the white matter.
They connect to motor neurons in the medial part of the ventral hom.
What do the vestibulospinal & reticulospinal tracts do?
Influence medial musculature, involved in the control of balance & posture - with little conscious control.
The vestibulospinal tract retains balance when the body is moved - external disturbance.
The reticulospinal tract helps us retain posture & balance during our own volitional movements - internal disturbance.
What are the 2 major ascending pathways of the spinal cord?
Medial lemniscus (dorsal column pathway)
Spinothalamic tract (lateral spinothalamic tract)
What does the medial lemniscus (dorsal column pathway) do?
Carries sensory info from the joint & skin eg. Fine touch, vibration, two-point discrimination, & proprioception
What does the spinothalamic tract do?
Conveys crude touch- a sense of being touched without knowledge of where, pain & temperature.
Where do the cell bodies of incoming sensory neurones lie?
Outside the spine in dorsal root ganglion, unlike motor neurones that have their cell bodies in the ventral horn.
Regardless of where the cell bodies are, both the sensory & motor axons run in the spinal nerves.
How are the 31 pairs of spinal nerves divided?
- 8 cervical
- 12 thoracic
- 5 lumbar
- 5 sacral
- 1 coccyx
What does position of nerves determine?
What part of the body each spinal nerve serves.
Because some parts of the body have more muscles & sensory receptors the size of the nerve and amount of info carried by the nerve will be different.
What are dermatomes ?
An area of skin supplied by nerves from a single spinal root.
What is 2-point discrimination?
The ability to discern that 2 nearby objects are being touched to the skin - this reflects how finely innervated an area of skin is.
What is a motor pool?
All motor neurones that innervate a single muscle.
Because there are more muscle fires than neurones, each muscle fibre is innervated by a single neurone, but a single motor neurone may innervate many fibres in the same muscle.
Muscles capable of fine movements are innovated by more neurones.
What is a motor unit?
The motor neurone & all the muscle fibres it contacts define the motor unit - they make up motor pools.
A lower motor neurone (alpha motor neurone) innervates a muscle. Each motor neurone synapses with multiple fibres within the muscle.
What does the dorsal horn do?
Contains sensory neurones, these receive sensory info & send it up to the brain.
What does the ventral horn do?
Contains motor neurones that send messages directly to the muscles