ANATOMICAL DEFINITIONS Flashcards
(179 cards)
What components make up the CNS?
- Brain & Spinal Cord
What makes up the Peripheral Nervous System? (PNS)
- Cranial Nerves (Originate from brain)
- Spinal Nerves (Originate from spinal cord)
- Sensory & Motor nerves (Voluntary)
Somatic Nervous System (SoNS)
- Voluntary muscle response
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
- Involuntary responses to stimuli from muscle (smooth and Cardiac) & glands
2 Divisions:
* Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
* Parasympathetic (PSNS)
Axon / nerve fibers
- Conduct nerve impulses away from the cell body toward another neuron or an effector cell (a cell that does something well stimulated, such as a muscle or gland cell)
- Can be called efferent processes because:
ex means “away”
ferre means “to carry”
Efferent processes conduct impulses away from the cell body
- nerve fibers refers to bundles of axons
Cell Body/Soma/Perikaryon
Contains the nucleus, which maintains the life of the neuron
Myelin sheath
- Speeds up conduction
- Made up of the cell membrane of specialized glial cells called oligodendrocytes in the brain and spinal cord, and Schwann cells in the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord
Neuroglia/glial cells
glia means glue
- Structurally and functionally support and protect the neurons
White matter
Nervous tissue containing many myelinated axons
(Myelin appears white grossly (without magnification)
Dendrites
Receive stimuli, or impulses from other neurons and conduct this stimulation to the cell body
- Can be referred to as afferent processes because:
ad means “toward”
ferre means “to carry”
Afferent processes conduct impulses towards the cell body
Afferent nerve fibers
- Conduct nerve impulses toward the CNS
- Referred to as sensory nerve fibers b/c afferent nerve fibers conduct sensations from the sensory receptors in the skin and other locations in the body to the CNS
Efferent nerve fibers
- Carry nerve impulses away from the CNS
- Referred to as motor nerve fibers b/c the efferent nerve impulses cause skeletal muscle contractions and movement
Myelin
- A sheath of fatty substance that covers each axon
- Appears white without magnification
Gray matter
Nervous tissue made up largely of neuron cell bodies appears darker
Nodes of Ranvier
- Small gaps in the myelin sheath between each adjacent glial cell
- Myelin sheath and nodes of Ranvier work together to enhance the speed of conduction of nerve impulses along the axon
T/F - Myelinated axons conduct nerve impulses faster than unmyelinated axons?
True
Terminal end fibers
- Takes messages to the synapse
Sensory nerve
- A nerve that contains only sensory nerve fibers
Motor nerve
- A nerve that contains only motor nerve fibers
Mixed nerve
- A nerve that contains both sensory and motor nerve fibers
- Most nerves in the PNS are mixed
Synapse
- Space between 2 neurons OR neuron and muscle/gland/target cell
- Requires a neurotransmitter (carries the message)
What muscles in the nervous systems are voluntary?
- Skeletal muscle
- (SoNS)
Resting State
- When a neuron is not being stimulated
What muscles in the nervous systems are involuntary?
- Smooth & cardiac
(ANS)
Sodium-potassium pump
- A specialized molecule located in the neurons cell membrane that pumps sodium ions (Na+) from the inside of the neuron to the outside and pumps potassium ions (K+) from the outside to the inside.
Action potential
- Significant change in electric charge from negative to positive