NS

Question 1

Whats the peripheral NS?

Answer 1

Autonomic nervous system
Somatic nervous system

Question 2

Whats the autonomic NS?

Answer 2

Regulates body‘s internal environment

Controls involuntary muscles (heart, intestines)
- Afferent: internal sensory signals to CNS
- Efferent: motor signals from CNS to internal organs

Unconscious and automatic

Question 3

What’s somatic NS?

Answer 3

Interacts with external environment

Controls voluntary muscles and conveys sensory information to the CNS
- Afferent: from skin, skeleton muscles, etc. to CNS
- Efferent: motor signals from CNS to skeleton muscles

Conscious and voluntary

Question 4

What’s the autonomic NS?

Answer 4

Sympathetic NS
Parasympathetic NS

Question 5

What’s the sympathetic NS?

Answer 5

Prepares the organs for vigorous activity (“fight-and-flight”)

Increases breathing and heart rate, decreases digestive activity

Question 6

What’s the parasympathetic NS?

Answer 6

Promotes energy-conserving, non-emergency functions

Generally does the opposite of sympathetic activities

Question 7

Whats the spinal cord?

Answer 7

Within the spinal column
- Communicates with sense organs and muscles below the head

Segmented structure
- SN: enters
- MN: exits

If cut, brain loses sensation from that segment and all segments below!

Simple, reflexive behaviours can take place on the level of the spinal cord

Question 8

What are the brain divisions?

Answer 8

Forebrain - cerebral hemisphere
Midbrain - brain stem
Hindbrain - spinal cord

Question 9

Whats in the hind brain?

Answer 9

Medulla
- Tracts carrying signals between rest of the brain and body
- Controls some vital reflexes (breathing, heart rate, vomiting, salivation, coughing, sneezing)

Reticular formation
- Plays important role in arousal, sleep, attention, movement, cardiac and circulatory responses …

Pons
- Axons from each side of the hemisphere cross (pons – Latin bridge)

Cerebellum
- Important sensorimotor structure
- Seems also involved in cognitive functions (e.g. crossmodal attentional shifts, timing)

Question 10

What’s in the midbrain?

Answer 10

Tectum
- SC: visual function
- IC: auditory function

Tegmentum
- sensorimotor function, part of the system that deteriorates in Parkinson’s disease

Question 11

Whats in the forebrain - diencephalon

Answer 11

Thalamus
- Sensory relay except for olfactory information

Hypothalamus
- Important for regulation of motivated behaviours
- Regulates release of hormones from pituitary gland

Question 12

Whats in the forebrain - Telencephalon?

Answer 12

Largest division of the human brain

Initiates voluntary movement, interprets sensory input, mediates complex cognitive processes

Main parts: cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system

Basal ganglia
- Several structures that play a major role for voluntary motor responses
- EX: Pathway from substantia nigra to striatum is deteriorated in Parkinson’s disease

Question 13

What’s the limbic system?

Answer 13

Regulation of motivated behaviours and emotions

Amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate cortex and others

Question 14

Whats the cerebral cortex?

Answer 14

Outer surface of cerebral hemispheres

Deeply convoluted to increase surface of the cortex
- Large furrows – fissures
- Small furrows – sulci (sing. sulcus)
- Ridges between furrows - gyri (sing. gyrus)

Neurons communicate across hemispheres mainly through the corpus callosum (bundle of axons)

Question 15

What’s the occipital lobe?

Answer 15

Main input from thalamic nuclei that receive visual input

Posterior pole = primary visual cortex (V1, striate cortex)

Destruction of V1 causes blindness in related part of the visual field

Question 16

Whats the parietal lobe?

Answer 16

Area posterior to central sulcus

Postcentral gyrus = primary somatosensory cortex
- Receives main input from touch sensations & muscle stretch receptors
- Sensory Homunculus

Also areas which are relevant for spatial information, numerical information, attentional processes
Lesions in the right PL often result in hemispatial neglect – disregard of the contralesional world

Question 17

Whats the temporal lobe?

Answer 17

Primary target for auditory information

Left TL relevant to understand spoken language (YT)

Medial part: Memory (Hippocampus)
Inferior part: Complex aspects of vision (perception of movement, recognition of faces and places – FFA/PPA

Question 18

What’s the frontal lobe?

Answer 18

Area anterior to central sulcus

precentral gyrus = primary motor cortex
- Movement control
- Motor homunculus

Anterior portion – prefrontal cortex
- Receives and integrates input from all sensory systems
- Higher cognitive functions (working memory, planning …)
- Prefrontal lobotomy – surgical disconnection of the prefrontal cortex from the rest of the brain (1940s/50s)

Question 19

How do neurons develop?

Answer 19

5 processes in the development of neurons
- Production of neurons and glia from stem cells
- Neurons move toward their eventual destinations in the brain
- Growth of axon and then dendrites
- Myelination, continues for decades
- Formation of synapses, continues throughout life (synaptogenesis)

Neurons are not formed after birth
- Two exceptions: Olfactory neurons and hippocampus neurons

Question 20

What are mechanisms of recovery for brain damage?

Answer 20

Regrowth of axons - PNS only

Formation of new axon branches in response to the loss of axons (sprouting)

Increased sensitivity to remaining neurotransmitters (denervation supersensitivity)
- Compensation
- Chronic pain

Reorganisation of sensory representations
- Axons representing another body part sprout into synaptic sites originally innervated by an amputated body part
- Can lead to a phantom limb

Learned adjustments in behaviour
- Identification and training of spared abilities