Nervous System Flashcards
Spinal Cord
Simple reflexes
- controls someone stretch and tendon reflexes
- controls primitive processes such as walking, urination, and sec organ function
Medulla
Part of hindbrain/rhombencephalon
Involuntary functions
- controls autonomic processes such as blood pressure, blood flow, heart rate, respiratory rate, swallowing, vomiting
- controls reflex reactions such as coughing or sneezing
- relays sensory information to the cerebellum and the thalamus
Pons
Part of Hindbrain/rhombencephalon
Relay station and balance
- controls antigravity posture and balance
- connects the spinal cord and medulla with upper regions of the brain
- relays information to the cerebellum and thalamus
Cerebellum
Part of hindbrain/rhombencephalon
Movement coordination
- integrating center
- coordination of complex movement, balance, and posture, muscle tone, spatial equilibrium
Midbrain/mesencephalon
Eye movement
- integration of visual and auditory information
- visual and auditory reflexes
- wakefulness and consciousness
- coordinates information on posture and muscle tone
Thalamus
Part of forebrain—> diencephalon
Integrating center and relay station
- relay center for somatic (conscious) sensation
- relays information between the spinal cord and the cerebral cortex
Hypothalamus
Part of forebrain–> diencephalon
Homesostasis and behavior
- controls homeostatic functions (ie. temperature, fluid balance, appetite) through both nerual and hormonal regulation
- -controls primitive emotions suchs as anger, rage, sex drive
- controls the pituitary gland
Brainstem
has important processing centers and relays information to or from the cerebellum and cerebrum
functions with the medulle, pons, and midbrain
diencephalon
part of the forebrain
thalamus and hypothalamus
telencephalon
part of the forebrain
includes:
- cerebral hemispheres connected by corpus callosum
- cerebrum (cerebral cortex/grey matter + white matter)
grey matter
somas
white matter
myelinated axons
corpus callosum
connection
connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres
cerebral cortex
has 4 lobes: frontal parietal temporal occipital
frontal lobe
- initiate all voluntary movement
- involved in complex reasonging skills and problem solving
parietal lobe
-involved in general sensations (ie touch, temperature, pressure, vibration, etc) and in gustation
temporal lobe
- proces auditory and olfactory sensation
- involved in short-term memory, language, language comprehension, emotion
occipital lobe
process visual information
basal nuclei/basal ganglia/cerebral nuclei
movement
- regulate body movement and muscle tone
- coordination of learned movement patterns
- general pattern of rhythm movements (ie controlling cycle of arm and leg movements when walking)
- subconscious adjustments of conscious movements
limbic system
includes the amygdala, cingulate gyrus, the hippocampus
emotions, memory, and learning
- controls emotional states
- links conscious and unconscious portions of the brain
- helps with memory storage and retrieval
cerebral cortex
perception, skeletal muscle movement, memory, attention, thought, language, consciousness
- divided into 4 lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital) with specialized subfunctions
- conscious thought processes and planning, awareness, and sensation
- perception and processing of the special senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch)
- intellectual function (intelligence, learning, reading, communication)
- abstract thought and reasoning
- memory storage and retrieval
- initiation and coordination of voluntary movement
- complex motor patterns
- language (speech production and understanding)
- personality
