Physiology Midterm Flashcards
What are the 3 main functions the nervous system uses to communicate and respond to environmental changes? And how do they work?
Sensory Input: allows us to read changes in the environment. This helps us survive and maintain a constant internal balance when faced with changes. In the traffic light example this occurs when we see a yellow light.
Integration: Is when the nervous system makes up a story about what is occurring. The first part of this is processing the information it is receiving from the sensory input. The second part is creating a plan of how to respond. It is understanding the meaning.
Motor Output: Is the physical act of the response. In the traffic example it is taking the foot off the accelerator and placing it on the break after seeing the yellow light.
What does the central nervous system consist of?
The brain and spinal cord
What happens in the spinal cord?
Where integration occurs
What does the PNS consist of?
cranial nerves, spinal nerves, ganglia.
What do spinal nerves do?
Take sensory input toward the CNS and send output to muscles/glands from the CNS
What is ganglia?
is a junction point for elements of the CNS. It is an indirect junction between the PNS and the CNS
What is a nerve?
is a collection of axons in the PNS
What is motor input and sensory input?
Motor Output= information is carried away from the spinal cord
Sensory Input= information is moved toward the spinal cord because it is necessary for integration.
What is the nervous system?
The master controlling and communicating system of the body
What does the nervous system consist of?
Mostly cells which communicate with each other by electrical and chemical signals.
What are the two ways the PNS is divided into?
What do they do?
Sensory/ afferent division & motor efferent version
Sensory/afferent division detects environmental changes, gathers information and sends it to the CNS. Example: blood pressure/ temperature. It has somatic and visceral fibres that go from receptors to the CNS
Motor/efferent: performs the actions (effectors)
Has motor nerve fibres from the CNS to effectors (muscles and glands)
What do efferent and afferent mean?
Efferent: info sent away from CNS
Afferent: Information sent to the PNS
Which muscles are voluntary/ involuntary?
Cardiac & Smooth= involuntary
Skeletal= Voluntary
What is integration managed by?
The CNS
How can the motor division be further divided?
Into the somatic nervous system (voluntary from CNS to skeletal muscles)
Autonomic Nervous System: involuntary (visceral motor) from CNS to cardiac muscle, smooth muscles and glands.
What two ways can the Autonomic Division be further divided?
Sympathetic Division (fight or flight)
Parasympathetic Division (rest and digest)
What do somatic and visceral mean?
Somatic: Information is going toward the muscles. It refers to the structure in the body (skin, bones, joints and skeletal muscles)
VIsceral: Internal Organs (stomach stretching out after you’ve eaten a meal)
What are some examples of glands?
tear, sweat, salivary
What is nervous tissue comprised of?
What are the two types of cells?
cells and minimal extracellular matrix.
a. neuroglia which are small supportive cells
b. neurons- excitable cells that transmit impulses.
What are the 4 types of Neuroglia in the CNS?
Astroctyes
Microglia
Ependymal Cells
Oligodendrocytes
What are astrocytes and from what system?
CNS system. Star shapes, most abundant and they help anchor neurons to capillaries. They help to control the external environment of the neuron because the neurons are easily excitable and must be tightly controlled. They have a role in nutrient exchange and in maintaining the blood-brain barrier. They control the environment by absorbing and recycling neurotransmitters.
What are microglia?
CNS system. Protective, they remove cell debris, wastes and pathogens. They can transform into macrophages to destroy what is not needed.
What are Ependymal Cells? What system?
CNS. Ciliated cells that line the cavities of the brain and spinal cord as a barrier between the CSF and fluid bathing cells of CNS. The spaces include canals (ventricals in the brain) and these cells produce and circulate fluid via cilia. It is also where blood filtration happens and the cells modify the fluid in these cavities and then circulate.
What are Oligodendrocytes and which system?
CNS. They are cells that are “few branches” they provide the myelin sheaths to the CNS neurons.
What are myelin sheaths?
They are made of fats (plasma membrane) and these speed up/conduct action potential. An example is when you run the quick contractions requires myelin sheaths so the signal arrives quickly. Action potential from neurons to smooth muscle don’t require this because it doesn’t need to happen as fast.
How are myelin sheaths made?
Axons send out these branches that wrap about the axon and the layering becomes the Myelin Sheath
What are the 2 types of Neuroglia in the PNS?
Satellite cells: control the external environment. They surround the cell bodies in ganglia and influence the chemical environment of the neurons.
Schwann Cells: Form the myelin sheath around larger neurons. They are vital to peripheral cell regeneration
What do neurons do?
They are the functional units of the nervous system. They conduct electrical impulses from one part of the body to another.
What are the special features of neurons?
Extreme longevity: if nourished will last whole life.
Amitotic: Unable to divide (irreplaceable)
They have a high metabolic rate. They are high activity and require sugar and oxygen.
What do all neurons have?
they are large complex cells consisting of a cells body and one or more processes.
What is a cell body?
also called the perikaryon or soma. It contains a large spherical nucleus. It is the biosynthetic centre. It posses extensive RER, ribsosome clusters, golgi and organelles. It is the receptive centre
What does biosynthetic mean?
manufactures the requirements for the neurons.
What are the 3 parts of a neuron?
Axon-long process Cell body (reception and biosynthesis Dendrites
What are axon terminals known as?
The secretory region where neurotransmitters such as ACHl are secreted
What does the Axon do?
Sends signals to the terminal. It is known as an impulse or conduction area.
What is another name for the cell body?
Perikaryon/soma
What is a collection of cell bodies within the CNS known as?
The PNS?
Nucleus
Ganglian
What are the two processes that extend out of the cell body?
Dendrites and Axons
What are dendrites?
Short, tapering branches extensions, there are usually hundreds per cell body. They have a large area for reception of signals from other neurons. They send incoming messages a short distance toward the cells body called graded potentials.
What do axons arise from? length and how many per neuron?
Arise from tapered region called axon hillock. They can be greater than 1 meter. A long axon is called a nerve fibre.
There is usually 1 per neuron. They have branches to form terminal branches which end at the axon terminal
What do axons do?
they generate signals and conduct them to the axon terminals and then release a chemical neurotransmitter into extracellular space.
What does the axon have?
the same organelles as the cell body, but it has no ribosomes and golgi apparatus. The axons quickly degenerate if they are cut. They have an elaborate cytoskeleton in the axon to move material to and from the cell body. (anterograde and retrograde)
What do anterograde and retrograde mean?
anterograde: from the cell body to the axon terminal (mitos, cystoskeleton, Neurotransmitters)
retrograde: from the axon terminal to the cell body (organelles to be degraded/recycles)
What are a collection of axons called in the PNS and CNS
PNS: Nerves
CNS: Tract
Peripheral Nervous System?
Consists of cranial, spinal nerves
Central Nervous System?
Consists of the brain and spinal cord
Sensory input
Sending info regarding changes to the environment to the CNS
Motor Output
An example includes stimulating a muscle to contract
Integration
Processing info and deciding how to respond to it
Schwann
A cell found within the PNS and forms the myelin sheath
Astrocyte
A cell that helps control the external environment of neurons
Ganglion
A collection of cell bodies in the PNS
Cell body
A cellular structure that receives information
Axon
A long cellular extension that generates and conducts signals.
How are neurons classified?
by the number of processes that extend from the cell body
What are the 3 types of neurons?
multipolar (3 or more)
Bipolar (2)
Unipolar (single that is divided into central and peripheral processes. The process acts as an axon. Dendrites are found at the end of the peripheral processes and is a receptive ending; mostly in ganglia of PNS and function as sensory neurons.
What is the most abundant neuron?
Multipolar
How are neurons classified? & What are the three types?
Functionally and according to the direction the electrical signal travels relative to the CNS
Sensory/afferent
Motor/efferent
Interneurons
What are sensory/afferent neurons?
They travel toward the CNS- They are primary, secondary and tertiary. They are uni and bi polar. Ex: touch- takes information from the skin to the spinal cord (primary sensory)
Nearly all sensory neurons are unipolar and cells bodies located in the ganglie ( outside the CNS)
Which sensory neurons are multipolar and where are they located?
Inside the CNS (secondary and tertiary) They move from the spinal cord to the brain
What are motor/efferent neurons?
Away from the CNS to effector organs like muscles and glands. They are multipolar, and most cell bodies reside within in the CNS
What are interneurons?
They are between the sensory and motor neurons. They are involved with the integration of information. They are found almost entirely within the CNS. 99% of the neurons in the body are interneurons. They are multipolar
What do neurons require?
electrical (graded and action potentials and chemical (neurotransmitter signals.
What do neurons do?
send signals to other neurons or effectos by way of the axons.
receive signals from other neurons on the dendrites and cells bodies
What is potential energy?
energy associated with separated ions and opposite charge. If you were to allow the door to open for flow of ions, it is the energy that exists between them