The Nervous System

Question 1

Directional Terminology

Question 2

Superior

Answer 2

Inferior

Question 3

Dorsal (superior)

Answer 3

ventral (inferior)

Question 4

anterior (front)

Answer 4

Posterior (back)

Question 5

medial (middle)

Answer 5

lateral (sides)

Question 6

contralateral (opposite side)

Answer 6

ipsilateral (same side)

Question 7

proximal (close)

Answer 7

distal (far)

Question 8

sagittal (side) vs. coronal (front/back)

Answer 8

axial (top)

Question 9

What is the order of the nervous system?

Answer 9

central and peripheral
- in the peripheral: somatic and automatic
- in the automatic: sympathetic and parasympathetic

Question 10

What are the 3 layers that from after 16 days of fertilization?

Answer 10

endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm

Question 11

What systems are in the endoderm?

Answer 11

Digestive and respiratory systems

Question 12

What systems are in the mesoderm?

Answer 12

muscle and connective tissues

Question 13

what systems are in the ectoderm?

Answer 13

skin and nervous system

Question 14

What part is part of the spinal cord?

Answer 14

neural tube

Question 15

The Central Nervous System

Answer 15

spinal cord and brain

Question 16

What are the parts of the brain? 5

Answer 16

brainstem, cerebellum, midbrain, forebrain, and cerebrum

Question 17

What are the 5 main divisions of the spinal cord?

Answer 17

• 8 cervical nerves (neck, arms, hands)
• 12 thoracic nerves (upper chest area)
• 5 lumbar nerves (leg muscles)
• 5 sacral nerves (bowel, bladder, sexual fuction)
• 1 coccygeal nerve (“tail bone”)

Question 18

What is grey matter?

Answer 18

• medial
• processing
  -composed of cell bodies, dendrites, and interneurons

Question 19

What is white matter?

Answer 19

-lateral
-composed of axons
- less processing, more sending

Question 20

What is the organization of the spinal cord?

Answer 20

grey matter, white matter, ventral root of the nerve (sends motor information to the muscles), dorsal root of the nerve (receives sensory information from the body)

Question 21

What does the Medulla Oblongata do?

Answer 21

• primarily composed of white matter (transmitting)
  -majority of information going to and from higher cortical structures passes through the medulla
  -contains cell bodies responsible for basic behaviors (breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep/arousal)
  -damage to the medulla is fatal

Question 22

What does the pons do?

Answer 22

• connects the medulla to higher brains structures
  -“the brain”
• mostly white matter
• some input and output crosses to the other side of the brain here
  -contains cell bodies for sleep/arousal

Question 23

What does the cerebellum do?

Answer 23

-“little brain”
- ALL about coordination
~ puts together sequences of movements
-balance
-damage here effects skilled movements
~ may impact speech
- one of the first brain structures impacted by alcohol (think DRUNK person)

Question 24

How many structures does the midbrain have? 2

Answer 24

Tegmentum and Tectum

Question 25

What does the Tegmentum do?

Answer 25

-contains structures linked to motor functions and reward systems

Question 26

What does the Tectum do?

Answer 26

-sensory things -Superior Colliculi ~vision -Inferior Colliculi ~ audition (hearing)

Question 27

Whats another name for the diencephalon?

Answer 27

the forebrain

Question 28

What does the Thalamus do?

Answer 28

- contains different groups of nuclei (cell bodies) -relay station for incoming information (directing the information) ~ some send information to specific brains areas ~ others send information more diffusely

Question 29

What does the Hypothalamus do?

Answer 29

- controls the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system (hormones) - helps maintain homeostasis (temperature regulation)

Question 30

What does the Limbic System do?

Answer 30

-sometimes called the fifth lobe -involved in processing drives, motivation, and emotions -contains many structures including: ~ hippocampus, fornix, amygdala, cingulate, cortex (sometimes hypothalamus)

Question 31

What does the Basal Ganglia?

Answer 31

- three main structures: ~ caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus and involved in the motor system

Question 32

What is phrenology?

Answer 32

- created by Franz Joseph Gall -proposed the idea that the brain is composed of distinct faculties in distinct areas - KEY: different areas of the brain do different things -WRONG: brain was a muscle and specific traits they tried to localize were wrong

Question 33

The Cerebrum ~ cortex

Answer 33

- two hemispheres - six lobes

Question 34

What are the four main lobes in the cerebrum?

Answer 34

Frontal: motor and higher order functions Parietal: somatosensory ~ touch Temporal: auditory Occipital: visual ~ vision Limbic Insular

Question 35

How main types of cortex do we have?

Answer 35

2 - primary and non-primary cortex

Question 36

What does the primary cortex do?

Answer 36

-receives input directly from sensory areas -only receives information from one type of sense

Question 37

What does the non-primary cortex do?

Answer 37

-receives information from other cortical areas - can be from only one sense (unimodal) - can be from multiple senses (multimodal)

Question 38

How many layers does the cortex have?

Answer 38

6

Question 39

What does Layer IV do?

Answer 39

main input layer

Question 40

what does layer II and III do?

Answer 40

Layer II, III: cortico-cortical output layers II: ipsi III: contra

Question 41

what does layer V and VI do?

Answer 41

Layer V. VI: descending output layers V: basal ganglia, thalamus, brainstem, spinal cord VI: thalamus/claustrum

Question 42

laminar organization

Answer 42

- the 6 layers led to the development of cytoarchitecture which are Brodmann areas - mapped out different areas of the brain

Question 43

What is hierarchical organization?

Answer 43

- processing proceeds in stages with each stage building on the computations carried out in the earlier stage -example on V1,V2, V3

Question 44

What is parallel organization?

Answer 44

- processing occurs in two ways at the same time (but separately)