Understanding brain structure through develop: Barr's/Bear Flashcards
Why do neurons (nerve cells) exist?
To transfer information rapidly from one part of the animal’s body to another
What is the nervous system?
All the neurons of an organism, together with their supporting cells
How do neurons carry out its communicative function?
-Conduction of signal from one part of the cell to another
- and synaptic transmission, which is communication between adjacent cells
What is an impulse (action potential)?
Wave of electrical depolarization that is propagated within surface membrane of the neuron. A stimulus applied to one part of the neuron initiates an impulse that travels to all other parts of the cell
What are neurites?
Long cytoplasmic processes end close to surfaces of other cells.
They are dendrites and axons
What is myelin
Wrapped around some axons, lipid-rich material composed of tightly packed membranous layers
Where are the cell bodies of neurons in the CNS?
Gray matter regions
What is a nucleus? (in terms of brain not nucleus of cell)
A compact aggregation of gray matter
What is the white matter of the CNS?
contains axons but not neuronal cell bodies
Where are the cell bodies in the PNS?
Occur in nodular structures called ganglia (singular: ganglion)
Where does the neurons and other cells develop from in the early embryo?
The dorsal ectoderm
Where is the epidermis derived from?
Epidermis is also derived from the ectoderm
What is the first indication of the future nervous system?
The neuroectoderm, consisting of the neural plate
Where does the neural plate appear?
In the dorsal mid-line of the embryo at the 16th-17th day after fertilization. Consists only of a flat sheet of cells
What makes the neural plate become taller than the ordinary ectoderm?
The underlying mesodermal cells
What comes after the neural plates, and in how long?
In 2 days the neural plate becomes the neural groove with a neural fold along each side
When is pregnancy timed?
from the 1st day of the last menstrual period, about 14 days before fertilization
the age of the embryo stated…?
from the known or estimated time of fertilization
When is the embryo renamed a fetus?
8 weeks and all the organs are formed
What is the embryonic period broken down into for exact description?
23 Carnegie stages, based on the studies of anatomical development in the large collection of embryos of the Carnegie Institution for science.
When do neural folds appear?
stage 8, when embryo is 1 - 1.5mm long
What happens at the 3rd week (stage 10) of development?
neural folds have begun to fuse with one another, thereby converting the neural groove into a neural tube.
Where does the transformation of neural groove to neural tube begin and proceed from there?
begins in the middle (in what will eventually be the cervical segments of the spinal cord)
Then proceed rostrally and caudally.
As the neural groove transforms into the neural tube from the middle, what are the openings called at each end and when do the openings close?
-Rostral neuropore at 24th day (stage 11)
-Caudal neuropores at about 27th day (stage 12)
Where does the brain and spinal cord develop from?
neural tube, the cells lining the tube will constitute the neuroepithelium, which will give rise to all the neurons and most of the other cells in the CNS
What is the neural crest?
Junction between the neural plate and ectodermal cells (that will be epidermis), not incorporated into the neural tube. Come together at midline. Dorsal to the tube. Some neural ectoderm pinched off. Cells from neural crests migrate laterally and ventrally.
What does the neural crest form? (neuronal)
-all neurons with cells bodies in the PNS
-Dorsal root ganglia of spinal nerves
-Some of the neurons in the sensory ganglia of cranial nerves
-Autonomic ganglia
-nonneuronal cells (neuroglia) of peripheral nerves
-Secretory cells of adrenal medulla
What are some of the nonneuronal elements that the neural crest differentiates into?
- Melanocytes of skin
- Calcitonin- secreting cells of thyroid gland,
- Chemosensory cells in the carotid and aortic bodies
- Odontoblasts of teeth
- Some of the bones, muscles, and other structures of mesenchymal origin in the head
Where are the connective tissue cells in the nerves and ganglia derived from?
Local mesoderm
What are placodes?
Thickened regions of ectoderm of the embryonic head. Some neurons and other cells in peripheral sense organs and ganglia derived from placodes.
(e.g., olfactory neurosensory cells)
What is the first populations of cells produced in neural tube
Neurons
when are most of the neurons are produced?
between the 4th and 20th weeks
The number of neurons formed in the neural tube…
Exceeds the number in the adult brain and spinal cord. Large numbers of neurons die in the normal course of development. (cell death or apoptosis)
what is apoptosis?
cell death
The cell death is genetically programmed in…
invertebrates
In vertebrates. the cells that died were those that…
failed to make synaptic connections
Where do the sensory ganglia derived from the neural crest send the neurites?
into the peripheral and into the neural tube
What happens by the 8th week of intrauterine life.
The centrally directed neurites have extensive synaptic connections with neurons in the spinal cord. The number and complexity of synapses continue to increase until well after birth, as does the generation of neuroglial
What are neuroglia (glia)?
comprises the cells of the nervous system that are not neurons.
What are the first glial cells that develop alongside the first neurons? And describe their processes
Radial glia, having cytoplasmic processes that extend from the lumen to the outside surface of the neural tube
What do the processes of radial glia do?
Guide the migration of the young neurons
Where are astrocytes and oligodendrocytes generated from?
The neuroepithelium during the fetal period
Where do microglial cells arise from? And Where do they go?
Arise from hemopoietic tissue (pertaining to the formation of blood or blood cells) and enter brain though the walls of blood vessels
In PNS where are neurons (in sensory and autonomic ganglia) and glial cells are (satellite cells in ganglia and Schwann cells in nerves) derived?
Neural crest
What does the caudal neuropore form?
upper lumbar segments of spinal cord
Further caudally from the caudal neuropore what is formed and how is it formed?
The spinal cord by secondary neurulation.
What is secondary neurulation?
The coalescence of a chain of vesicles that become continuous with the lumen (cavity) of the neural tube about 3 weeks after the closure of the caudal neuropore
Where is the vesicles from the secondary neurulation derived from?
The caudal eminence
What is the caudal eminence?
a mass of pluripotent cells located dorsal to the developing coccyx.
What are the 3 major divisions (or vesicles) of the brain that appear at the end of the 4th week of development?
-Prosencephalon (forebrain)
-Mesencephalon (midbrain)
-Rhombencephalon (hindbrain)
What does the prosencephalon develop into during the 5th week of development? (also referred to as the secondary vesicles)
-Telencephalic vesicles –>together both form the Telencephalon (endbrain)
-Diencephalon
-optic vesicles
What does the rhombencephalon (hindbrain) develop into during the 5th week of development?
- Metencephalon
- Myelencephalon
Does the mesencephalon differentiate into?
Doesn’t differentiate, eventually becomes the midbrain
What are neuromeres?
The early embryonic brain CNS divides longitudinally into smaller segments. The neuromeres become indistinguishable as the complex structure of the brain develops, but segmental organisation of the spinal cord persists throughout life.
What is the sulcus limitans
Longitudinal groove that appears along the inner aspect of each lateral wall in the neural tube as the cellular proliferation and differentiation proceed.
What does the sulcus limitans do?
separates dorsal alar plate from a ventral basal plate
What connections does the dorsal alar plate acquire?
afferent connections
What connections does the ventral basal plate acquire?
efferent connections
What are the left and right basal plates separated by?
By thin floor plate
What do the basal plate cells become?
Some differentiate into motor neurons, with axons that grow out into the developing muscles
What axons enter the alar plate?
The growing axons of neurons of the sensory ganglia
What does the myelencephalon (came from rhombencephalon) become?
Medulla oblongata.
What does the metencephalon (came from rhombencephalon) become?
pons and cerebellum
What is the mesencephalon of the mature brain called?
midbrain
What does the diencephalon become?
- Thalamus
- epithalamus
- hypothalamus
- subthalamus
What does the telencephalon become?
-Cerebral cortex and the basal telencephalon
-Cerebral hemispheres, each containing olfactory system, corpus striatum (a mass of gray matter with motor functions) , cerebral cortex, and white matter
What does the lumen of the neural tube become?
The ventricular system.
Where do the lateral, third and fourth ventricles located.
-lateral ventricle - in each cerebral hemisphere
-third ventricle - diencephalon
-fourth ventricle - bounded by the medulla, pons and cerebellum
(key landmarks in adult brain)
What connects the third and fourth ventricle?
narrow channel called the cerebral aqueduct (located in and running through midbrain)
What is the central/spinal canal?
the narrow lumen that runs down the middle of the spinal cord, continuous with the lumen of the caudal medulla .
What helps accommodate the initially cylindrical brain in what will eventually be a round head?
The flexures, which allow the brain to bend. Because neural tube growth at certain points is limited
Where is the cervical flexure?
Forms at the junction of the rhombencephalon with the spinal cord
Where is the mesencephalic flexure (aka cephalic flexure)?
at the level of the midbrain
Where is the pontine flexure?
in the metencephalon
What do the flexures do in order to contrast us with quadrupedal animals?
necessary feature of the erect posture of humans, in quadrupedal animals there is no abrupt bend at the junction of the midbrain with the forebrain
When does the membranous coverings of the brain and spinal cord first appear and what is it?
4th week appears as a single mesodermally derived primary (or primitive) meninx.
What happens 1 week later after the meninx is formed (5th week)?
Formation of the 3 layers that constitute the meninges:
-dura mater
-arachnoid membrane
-pia mater
What fluid is contained in the subarachnoid space, and where is it?
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), between the inner 2 meningeal layers (arachnoid membrane and pia mater)
What is the least differentiated component of the CNS?
spinal cord