Neuroanatomy Flashcards
What is the diffence between grey and white matter?
Grey matter- nerve cell bodies
White matter- myelinated axons
What allows action potentials to be conducted faster down the nerve?
Schwann cells (SCs) are a type of glial cell- make the axon myelinated
In what type of matter are synapses located?
Predominately grey matter regions
What anatomical words are used to describe the different sides of the brain and the brain stem?
BRAIN= superior, anterior, inferior and posterior
BRAIN STEM= Rostral, caudal, dorsal and ventral

What are the 4 main subdivisions of the brain?
Cerebral hemispheres (green)
Diencephalon (orange)
Brain stem (purple, yellow, red and blue)
Cerebellum (yellow)

What is a gyrus?
Ridge on the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres
What are sulcus’ and fissures?
Grooves, fissure is particularly large one
Where does conscious activity take place?
Cerebral hemispheres
What is the name of the main ridge that connects the left and right hemispheres?
Corpus callusum
What are the left and the right cerebral hemispheres seperated by?
The great longitudonal fissure
What is the rim of grey matter around the cerebral hemispheres called?
Cerebral cortex
What are the different lobes and fissures seperating the lobes in the brain?

What different actions are controlled within the frontal lobe?
Planning complex movements and thinking, motor activity and speech production
What different actions are control by the parietal lobe?
Spacial awareness of body and surroundings
Somato-sensory area, recieves and process somatic information
What is processed within the occipital lobe?
Vision
What is controlled by the temporal area of the brain?
Auditory sense, language understanding
Behaviour, emotions and motivation
What are Brodmann’s areas?
Numbers allocated to describe areas of the brain
What brodmann numbers are assigned to:
- Primary somatosensory area
- Primary motor
- Primary visual
- Broca’s (motor speech) area
- Primary auditory
Primary somatosensory= 1,2,3
Motor= 4
Visual= 17
Broca’s= 44,45
Primary auditory= 41,42
What are the different types of communicating fibres in the brain?
Association fibres- within hemispheres
Commissural fibres- between hemispheres
Projection fibres- cortex to sub-cortical areas such as spinal cord
What is the diencephalon and what are the different parts of it?
Area under corpus collosum, operates at subconscious level.
Epithalamus, thalamus, subthalamus and hypothalamus
What is the epithalamus?
Regulates the sleep cycle
What is the thalamus?
Single structure with two parts. All sensory information collects here and is then sorted to another part of the brain
What is the hypothalamus?
Linked with the pituitary grand (regular of the endocrine system)
What are the 3 parts of the brain stem?
Midbrain (purple)
Pons (yellow)
Medulla (red)


