Nervous System: CNS Flashcards
Brain, neurons, spine (30 cards)
CNS stands for:
Central Nervous System
What 2 things make up the CNS
The brain and the spinal cord
Neurons
Nerve cells
What do the neurons in the brain do?
Control consciousness, emotions, thought, movement, and unconscious body functions
What cushions the brain against damage?
Cerebrospinal fluid and meninges (layered membranes)
What are the main parts of the brain (3)?
Cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem
What are the sides of the cerebrum?
Right cerebral hemisphere and left cerebral hemisphere; connected deep down by a mass of linking fibres
What does the cerebrum’s wrinkled cortex (surface layer) contain?
Grey matter (nerve cells) overlying white matter (nerve trunks)
Motor cortex deals with:
Voluntary movement
Sensory cortex deals with:
Bodily sensations
Frontal lobe deals with:
Personality
Occipital lobe deals with:
Sight
Hearing centre deals with:
Hearing (behind is the speech centre)
Where is the hypothalamus (and other control, co-ordination and relay centres [emotion + behaviour]
Below the mass of fibres linking cerebral hemispheres
What does the cerebellum deal with?
Balance and co-ordinating complex movements of the body
What is the brainstem?
A stalk of nerve fibres and nuclei that joins the spinal cord to the cerebellum and cerebrum
What does the brainstem control?
Automatically controls breathing, heartbeat and digestion
What forms the nervous system?
Neuron networks
What do sensory neurons do?
Send signals from nerve endings e.g., in eye/ear/skin etc. to the brain
What do motor neurons do?
Send signals from the brain and spinal cord to muscles
What do interneurons do?
Provide intervening links
What 3 parts do a sensory neuron and a motor neuron have?
A rounded cell body, long + narrow insulated axon and branching dendrites
What flows through the axon and dendrites?
Electrical impulses
What do chemical messengers do?
Jump the synapse between one neuron and another
