Module C Study Guide Flashcards
1) What are the main components of the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)?
CNS: Brain and Spinal cord
PNS: Nerve fibers that carry info between the CNS and the periphery
2) What information is carried by an afferent neuron; is this information transported towards or away from the CNS?
To the CNS; info about external environment and internal activities that are regulated by the CNS
3) What information is carried by an efferent neuron; is this information transported towards or away from the CNS?
“Exit” or away from the CNS to effector organs; Instructions from the CNS
4) What are several functions of glial cells?
90% of cells in the CNS; communication between themselves and neurons through chemical signals; metabolic and physical support of neurons; maintain composition of specialized extracellular environment surrounding the neurons; modulate or depress synaptic function; important to learning and memory
5) What are cranial and spinal meninges? How many are there? What is the general function of them? You are not learning their specific names.
Three layers; provide stability, support, cushioning
6) What is the function of the blood-brain barrier?
Limits access to blood borne materials into brain tissue
7) What are the four main portions of the brain, from anterior (superior) to posterior (inferior)?
Cerebrum, Diencephalon, Cerebellum, Brain Stem
10) What makes gray matter gray and white matter white? What is the overall structure of the brain – in terms of location of gray and white matter?
Gray matter-
White matter-
11) Which portions of the brain are involved in locomotion?
-Cerebellum
12) How many pairs of cranial nerves are there? What are some of the types of sensory information they carry? What are some of the motor commands they carry (what general types of movements result from “motor” cranial nerves)?
12 pairs (most in brain stem)
- Supply structure in head and neck with sensory and motor fibers
- Sight, hearing, equilibrium, eye movement, chewing, swallowing, facial expression, salivation
- *Except the vagus nerve; supplies chest and abdominal cavity
13) Which portions of the brain are involved in consciousness and alertness?
Cerebrum
14) What are the four main sections of the vertebrate spinal cord?
Cervical, thoracic, Lumbar, Sacral
15) What is the overall structure of a spinal cord section? Where is the gray matter? The white matter? What is carried through the dorsal root (information and direction)? Through the ventral root (information and direction)?
- Outside=white matter; inside=gray
- Dorsal-in the back-sensory information
- Ventral-out the front (to effector organs)- motor information
Each of the three horns of gray matter house cell bodies for particular types of neurons. What is carried by neurons that have cell bodies in each of the three horns?
- Dorsal: Cell bodies of interneurons on which afferent neurons terminate; sensory neurons
- Ventral: Somatic; motor, efferent, to skeletal muscle
- Lateral: Autonomic; cardia, smooth muscle, and glands
17) What is accomplished in the white matter tracts?
-Bundles of nerve fiber with similar functions (ascending, descending, ventral, spinocerebellar, corticospinal; always cross over)
18) What is the general pathway for a reflex arc?
- Spinal cord is responsible for innate reflexes
1) Sensory receptor
2) Afferent pathway
3) Integrating center
4) Efferent pathway
5) Effector organ
What do we call the fluid that moves in between some of the layers? What do we call the large spaces in the brain that are filled with the fluid and are the sites of fluid production?
- Cerebral spinal fluid
- Choriod plexuses
Cerebrum
Cerebral cortex and basal nuclei
Left cerebral hemisphere
Logical, analytical, sequential, verbal tasks
Right cerebral hemisphere
Non-language skills
Cerebral cortex
- Top of brain; left and right hemisphere; outer shell of, inner core of white
- Neurons in different regions may fire in rhythmic synchrony (action potentials); functional differences result from different layering patterns and input and output patterns
- Four pairs of lobes (occipital, temporal, parietal, frontal)
Occipital lobe
Visual cortex
Temporal lobe
Auditory cortex
Parietal lobe
Somatosensory cortex (info about outside stimuli) -Localizes sensations from skin, body position
Frontal lobe
Primary Motor cortex
- Voluntary control over skeletal muscles
- Speaking
- Thought
Basal nuclei
- Movement control
- Inhibition of muscle tone
- Maintaining purposeful motor activity; suppression of useless activity
- Monitor/coordinate slow movement; posture/support
Thalamus
- relay station for preliminary processing of sensory input
- filters important signals from those that are not important
- Routes important signals to the somatosensory cortex and other areas of the brain
- reinforces voluntary motor control from cortex
Hypothalamus
- beneath the thalamus; nuclei and fibers
- Center for homeostatic functions
- Controls body temperature
- Thirst and urine output
- Controls food intake
- Autonomic nervous system coordinating center
- Sleep-wake cycle
- Milk/gland excretion
- Emotional and
Limbic system
- system of forebrain structures that surround the brain stem; intricate neuron pathway; thalamus, hypothalamus; basal nuclei
- emotions, behaviors, motivation, learning, memory
Brain stem
- Medulla , pons, and midbrain
- Vital link between the spinal cord and higher brain regions
- All ingoing and outgoing fibers pass through
- Control of cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive
- Equilibrium, postural reflexes, cortical alertness
- Sleep center (+ hypothalamus)
Cerebellum
- Under the occipital lobe of the cortex and attached to brain stem
- Balance; planning and executing voluntary movement
- Subconscious control of motor activity
- More neurons than rest of brain
Gray matter
-Neuronal cell bodies/dendrites, glial cells
White matter
-Bundles of nerve fibers (axons of long interneurons)
