W4 - Spinal Cord Organisation

Question 1

What are the two barriers?

Answer 1

CSF + BBB

Question 2

What are the 2 main types of arteries that supply the SC?

Answer 2

SPinal arteries (1 anterior and 2 posterior) and Radicular arteries

Question 3

What two things keep the spinal cord in place?

Answer 3

Arachnoid trabeculae and denticulate ligaments

Question 4

What are the 4 segments relating to the SC?

Answer 4

Cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral

Question 5

Where does the grey matter of the spinal cord finish, what does it cone into and what does this form?

Answer 5

L1/2 by tapering into conus medullaris and then the cauda equina

Question 6

Where is the lumbar cistern positioned?

Answer 6

Below L1/2

Question 7

What is in the grey matter?

Answer 7

Cell bodies, dendrites, axon terminals and supporting glia

Question 8

What is the white matter composed of?

Answer 8

Bundles of axons travelling to targets

Question 9

There are 10 rexed laminae in the spinal cord grey matter, what are the zones defined by?

Answer 9

Their cytoarchitecture

Question 10

Laminae 1-6 = dorsal horn, what is its function?

Answer 10

Receives and processes sensory info

Question 11

Laminae 7 = intermediate zone, what do the cell groups do in this lamina?

Question 12

Laminae 8+9 = ventral horn, what do these areas include?

Answer 12

Motor interneurons and lower motor neurons

Question 13

Laminae 10 = central zone,

Question 14

Nociceptive C and A afferents input into laminae 1, 2 and 5, what is this called?

Answer 14

Multimodal

Question 15

Somatic motor neurons are located in the ventral horn, how are they arranged?

Answer 15

Somatotopically arranged (specific part of body for distinct location in CNS)

Question 16

What are the 3 columns in the white matter of the SC?

Answer 16

Dorsal/lateral/ventral column (feniculus)

Question 17

What is a suggested reason for white matter surrounding grey in the SC?

Answer 17

Protection (easier to fix axons than cell bodies of neurons)

Question 18

What part of the white matter do the fasciculus gracilis and cuneatus travel in?

Answer 18

Dorsal column

Question 19

What two types of information is carried in the 3-neuron pathway in the dorsal column?

Answer 19

Proprioceptive and discriminative touch info

Question 20

List the order of the 3 neurons in the DCML pathway

Answer 20

Mechanoreceptor aff, dorsal column nucleus, ventral posterior nucleus

Question 21

What three types of information is carried in the spinothalamic tract?

Answer 21

Pain, innocuous temperature and crude touch

Question 22

What three neurons are involved in the spinothalamic tract?

Question 23

Where do descending tracts arise?

Answer 23

Cerebral cortex and brainstem

Question 24

What do the corticospinal tract and rubrospinal tract control?

Answer 24

CST - movement, RST -

Question 25

What do the vestibulospinal tract and reticulospinal tract do?