Spinal Cord 2 Flashcards
where are the motornuerons found?
in the ventral horn
2 kinds of motorneurons
- alpha
- gamma
alpha motorneurons
- go to skeletal muscle
- somatic efferent fibers
- go to extrafusal fibers
- end as motor end plate
gamma motorneurons
- go to intrafusal fibers (muscle spindle)
- send sensory info to tell how contracted the muscle is
distribution of motorneurons
- shoulder muscles: upper cervical region
- hand muscles: low cervical/upper thoracic
*what’s the point? explains our segmental arrangement
what is a similarity of the motorneurons in the ventral horn to the dosral horn?
both are arranged somatitopically
intermediolateral column contains what?
visceral motor nuerons
lateral motor column supplies:
muscles of the limb
medial motor column supplies:
axial muscles
describe the convergence of afferents to a ventral horn motorneuron
- 4 descending tracts come down to converge on the neuron (corticospinal, reticulospinal, vestibulospinal, rubrospinal and tectospinal)
- an inhibitor and excitatory spinal reflex converges on it
- the motorneuron axon extends as the final common pathway to a muscle
lower motor neurons =
alpha motor neurons - arise from anterior horn cells and project to skeletal muscle
upper motor neurons =
arise in the CNS, stay in CNS, and descend to act on lower motor neurons
what would happen if there were a lesion on a lower motor neuron? and why?
- hyporeflexive
- reflex arc is no longer in tact
what would happen if there were a lesion on a upper motor neuron? and why?
- hyperreflexive
- reflex arc still intact
- think of McNeils example of the women w/ massive stroke that kicked him in the head
what are the afferent fibers that enter the dorsal root?
- group A fibers
- C fibers
group A fibers
- large and myelinated
- come into dorsal column w/o synapsing and ascend
- FAST
what do group A fibers carry?
- proprioception
- discriminative touch
- vibration
- 2 point sensory info
C fibers
- tiny unmyelinated fibers
- from spinothalamic tract
- slower
what do C fibers carry?
signals related to . . .
- pain
- temp
- poorly localized touch
how is the group A fibers / C fibers interaction significant in real life?
- when you hurt yourself, there is a second where you know what happened but it doesn’t hurt, you just know the pain is coming
- the “something touched me” sense is faster than the pain sense
where does sensory start?
at the sensory endings for primary afferents in the DRG
- there are specialized receptors for everything
- examples: pacinian corpuscle, ruffini endings, meissner corpuscle, etc.
fasciculus proprius
- interconnects segments of SC - helps w/ reflexes
- has axons that don’t leave SC
- sends info up and down more segments