MCN 1 Flashcards
What happens in the choroid plexus?
Wastes and unnecessary solutes are exchanged for glucose, oxygen, vitamins and ions from the blood
How much roughly does the adult human brain weigh?
1.5kg
What are the functions of CSF?
To protect the brain from mechanical damage
Removes excess K ions and NTs
Carries a no. Of secreted mediators to the brain parenchyma
What are the three layers of the meninges?
The pia mater
Arachnoidea spinalis
The dura mater
What are arachnoidal villi?
Protusions in which liquid/blood transfer occurs in the brain
What is hydrocephalus?
A condition in which the ventricles have become enlarged in a newborn child
When neural crest cells are treated with glucocorticoid hormones what will they become?
Chromaffin cells
When neural crest cells are treated with wnt, what will they become?
Sensory neurons
What are the sections of the spinal cord and how many vertebrae are in each?
Cervical - 8 Thoracic - 12 Lumbar - 5 Sacral - 5 Coccygael - 1
What is the motor unit?
The muscle fibres innervated by a single motor neuron
What does the Choroid Plexus consist of?
Capillaries folded extensively
What are the components of the basal ganglia?
Caudate nucleus
Putamen
Globus pallidus
Where are the basal ganglia located?
Underneath the insula which is under the frontal and temporal lobes
What do commisural fibres do?
Interconnect corresponding grey Reas in the hemispheres
What is the corpus callosum?
The largest commisure fibre
In the cube test what did they find that the right brain was responsible for?
Spatial awareness and facial recognition
In the cube test what did they find that the left brain did?
Analytical skills
What are the two types of memory?
Declerative memory - can be out into words
Non-declerative memory - can’t be put into words
What are the functions of the limbic system?
Emotional brain
Consolidates and retrieves memories
Transfers memories from short term to long term via the papez circuit
Where is the hippocampus located?
In the medial temporal lobe
What does the hippocampus do?
Plays a role in memory and spatial navigation
What is the body of fornix?
A c-shaped bundle of fibres in the brain
What does the body of fornix do?
Carries signals from the hippocampus to the mammilary bodies and septal nuclei
What are the mammillary bodies?
A pair of small round bodies located at the ends of the anterior arches of the fornix. They act as a relay for impulses from the amygdala and hippocampu via the mammilo thalamic tract to the thalamus
What is the papez circuit responsible for?
Transfer of declerative memory from short term to long term
Where is the amygdala located?
In front of the hippocampus jn the anterior pole of the temporal lobe
What are the main categories of declerative memory?
Daily episodes
Words and their meanings
History
What are the main categories of non-declerative memory?
Motor skills
Associative
Priming cues
Puzzle solving skills
What is Kosikoff syndrome?
Caused by long term alcohol abuse it causes a lack of thiamine which leads to problems with long term memory
What is the function of the dentate gyrus?
Contributes to new memories and happiness regulation
What is believed to be the function of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus?
It plays a role in new memory formation
What is the supracellular gyrus?
2 longitudinally directed strands of fibres termed the medial and longitdunial striae
What are some of the functions of the amygdala?
Passing on information
Forming memories
What is the telencephalon?
Cerebral cortex / vesicle 1a
What is the metencephalon?
The pons and cerebellum / 3a vesicle
What is the myelencephalon?
The medulla / vesicle 3b
What is the mesencephalon?
The midbrain / vesicle 2
What is the diencephalon?
The thalamus and hypothalamus / vesicle 1b
What does the spinal cerebellum do?
It helps us to build an image of our body in 3D space
What is the primary function of the cerebellum?
The alter the motor plan based on our environment
Outline the pathway of input into the cerebellum
The frontal motor/ parietal cortex projecfs to the pons which projects through the middle cerebellar peduncle to the cerebellar cortex.
Also the inferior olive, spinal cord and vestibular nucleus project to the cerebellar cortex through the inferior cerebellar peduncle
Outline the pathway for output from the cerebellum
The cerebellar cortex projects to the deep cereballer nuclei which project via the superior cerebellar peduncle to the thalamus which projects to the primary motor and premotor cortex
What happens to a patient with a damaged cerebellum?
They can’t maintain their balance
Outline the direct pathway for the basal ganglia
The caudate and putamen inhibit the internal globus pallidus which inhibits the thalamus which excites the frontal cortex
Which germ layer is the nervous system derived from?
The ectoderm
Where is the organiser in vertebrate development?
The dorsal lip of the blastoporous
In vertebrates how does neural determination of cell fate work?
The default pathway is to become a neuron. So in order to do this the organizer releases BMP inhibitors which prevent the cell becoming epidermis.