Nervous System - Central Nervous System Flashcards
What is the central nervous system?
- structural and functional centre of the entire nervous system
What is the function of the central nervous system?
- site of neural integration and processing
- Received information from senses, evaluates it, and initiates outgoing responses
What forms grey matter in the CNS?
- mostly cell bodies, dendrites, and short, unmyelinated axons
- outside areas of brain and H-shaped core of spinal cord
What forms white matter in the CNS?
- myelinated axons that run in tracts
- Found in in outer region of a certain brain areas and outer region of spinal cord
What is the structure of the spinal cord?
- column of nerve tissue extending from brain through the canal in back bone
- has grey and white matter
What does the spinal cord do?
- Communicate between brain and PNS
- primary reflex center (quick decisions)
- > coordinates reflexes
What are the two nerves found in the spinal cord, and what do they do?
Sensory nerves carry information from the body to the brain
Motor nerves carry information from the brain to effectors
What is the spinal cord protected by?
- protected by cerebrospinal fluid (see handout), soft tissue, and spinal column (series of backbones or vertebrae)
What is the function of the brain?
- center for intelligence, consciousness, and emotion
What is the structure of the brain?
- fragile, gelatin-like material that is protected by bony skull
What do the meninges do? What is their structure?
- Enclose brain and spinal cord
- made up of three layers: dura mater, arachnoid mater, Pia mater (handout)
- these protect the CNS
What is the blood-brain barrier?
- Blood capillaries that lead to the brain have tightly fused epithelial cells that block toxins and infectious agents from entering the brain
- special transport mechanisms allow certain helpful substances in
- some lipid-soluble substances can diffuse through the cell membrane and get into the brain
What is cerebrospinal fluid, and what or some facts about it?
- produced in ventricles of brain and transports hormones, white blood cells, and nutrients across the blood-brain barrier
- replaced about four times a day
- Returned to blood after circulation
What is the structure of the cerebrum?
- cerebral cortex, corpus callosum
What do the cerebral hemispheres generally tell about a person?
Right side - holistic, intuitive, artistic thinking
Left side - Segmental, sequential, logical, Linguistic, mathematical thinking
What are the four pairs of functional lobes?
Occipital, Temporal, parietal, frontal