Nervous System Flashcards
The nervous system allows___?
our body to respond to the external and internal enviornment
The nervous system is ___ and __ divided
structurally divided into a CNS and PNS and functionally divided into a somatic and visceral (autonomic) nervous system
what are sensory functions
Afferent- that detect internal and external stimuli and send it to the nervous system
what are motor functions?
Efferent- responding to decisions
what is a neuron
a nerve cell, contains a cell body, process like axon and dendrites
what are the processes?
processes serve as connectors to other nerurons or to receptors on target structures
what are nerves
bundles of nerve processes
What is CNS consist of?
the brain and spinal cord
what does the spinal cord travel within?
the vertebral canal
where does the spinal cord begin and end anatomically?
from the brain stem through the foramen magnum to L2 vertebral level
how many segments does the spinal cord have?
31 for all spinal nerves but compressed to the length of the vertebral column
what is the conus medullaris
located at L1-L2 where the spinal cord ends
cuada equina
is the horse tail like structure that are lower spinal nerves following the conus medullaris
Dural sac
contains meninges and CSF and surround the spinal cord and the cauda equina continues to the S2
Meninges
dura mater, arachnoid subarachnoid and pia
CSF
cereborspinal fluid located in teb sub acarachnoid space
what is a lumbar puncture?
where CSF can be withdrawn from the subarachnoid space or anesthetics injected into it. the syringe is commonly placed between L3 and L4 to avoid the spinal cord
gray matter
neuron and cell bodies
white matter
bundles of nerve fibers, often form tracts
nucleus
collections of neuron cell bodies inside the cns
ganglion
collection of neuro cell bodies outside the cns ex. dorsal root ganglion
spinal cord gray matter
Central H shaped portion of the cord, contains neuron cell bodies arrangend in horns
Spinal cord horns
Dorsal horn- sensory
ventral horn- motor
lateral horn- visceral motor (autonomic)
Motor
Efferent when the impulse is carried away from CNS to muscle glands