Introduction to the nervous system Flashcards
What is the function of the nervous system?
Controls a huge number of organs and processes, both involuntary and voluntary
Abnormality leads to disorder and disease
Important factor in out evolution
Holds the essence to our personalities
Key to humanity
What are the gyrus and sulcus?
Gyrus = raised bits Sulcus = dips in the surface of the brain
What does the parietal lobe control?
Dorsal edge
- motor, sensory, cutaneous and taste
What does the occipital lobe control?
Caudal region
- vision
What does the cerebellum control?
Most caudal point
- coordination, balance, posture
What does the encephalon control?
Most ventral
- breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, swallowing
What does the temporal lobe control?
Dorso-ventral
- hearing and language
What does the frontal lobe control?
Most cephalic/cranial point
- concentration, planning, emotion, creativity
What is the nervous system made of?
NS concerned with the perception of processes that take place inside (enteroreception) or outside the body (exteroreception) and with internal and external communication
Given diversity of the interrelated tasks, the body is involved with a complex NS which can be divided into various categories
- direction and flow of information
- anatomy and morphology
- physiological activities
What is the afferent system?
Nerves that transmit impulses towards the brain and spinal cord
What is the efferent system?
Nerves that transmit impulses away from the brain and spinal cord
How does communication with the rest of the NS outside of the brain/spinal cord occur?
CNS communicates with the rest of the body through cranial nerves and spinal nerves
- BSE (bovine spongiform encephaly) - gets to the brain via the vagus nerve
- rabies - travels through the nerves
What two parts can the nervous system be divided into?
Central nervous system (CNS) - made up of brain + spinal cord the two units are interconnected and a functional unit
Peripheral nervous system
- location of a cell body determines if a cell is in the CNS or the PNS
What does the CNS consist of?
Made up of white and grey matter
- grey matter = nerve cell bodies
- white matter = nerve cell processes (axons) and the insulating myelin sheaths
What is the peripheral nervous system made up of?
Cranial nerves
Spinal nerves
Ganglia
- typical peripheral nerve carries both afferent and efferent fibres and therefore referred to as a mixed nerve , not the case for cranial nerves e.g. optic nerve is purely afferent
Afferent and efferent fibres maybe myelinated or unmyelinated
Cell bodies of PNS lie within a ganglia