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The Nervous System Flashcards

1
Q

Everything we do is processed and executed by what?

A

Everything we do is processed and executed by electrical and chemical signals to and from nerve cells.

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2
Q

Name some inputs to the brain.

A

Hearing, pain, vision, taste, smell

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3
Q

What are the two types of output from the brain?

A

Voluntary and involuntary

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4
Q

What are the two different bands of the nervous system?

A

Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System

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5
Q

How is the PNS divided?

A

The motor division and sensory division

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6
Q

How is the motor division divided?

A

Somatic Nervous System and Autonomic Nervous System

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7
Q

How is the Autonomous Nervous System divided?

A

The Sympathetic Division and the Parasympathetic Division.

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8
Q

Is the Sensory Division Afferent of Efferent, and what does this mean?

A

The sensory division is afferent, this means it carries impulses towards the peripheral nervous system.

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9
Q

Is the Motor Division afferent or efferent, and what does this mean?

A

The motor division is efferent, this means they take signals from the peripheral nervous system, and use them to initiate a response to the stimulus.

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10
Q

Is the Somatic Nervous System voluntary or involuntary?

A

Voluntary

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11
Q

Is the Autonomous Nervous System voluntary or involuntary?

A

Involuntary

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12
Q

Which part of the peripheral nervous system is involuntary?

A

The Autonomous Nervous System

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13
Q

What is the Sympathetic Nervous System?

A

This is the fight or flight

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14
Q

What is the Parasympathetic Nervous System?

A

This is the rest and digest

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15
Q

What does afferent mean?

A

Afferent refers to the neurons carrying signals from sensory perceptions towards the CNS.

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16
Q

What does efferent mean?

A

Efferent refers to the neurons carrying signals from the CNS to the effector organs.

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17
Q

When developing prosthetics, which part of the nervous system must be focused on?

A

When developing prosthetics, focus on the motor division and working out the intention of the movement of the prosthesis, as well as working out how to make the movement. It is also important to understand how to interface with the sensory system (sensory division) to allow the user to know positions, temperatures, etc of the prosthesis.

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18
Q

A large amount of the cells in the nervous system are what type?

A

A large amount of the cells in the nervous system are glial cells.

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19
Q

How many different types of glial cells are there?

A

There are many different types of glial cells, approximately 8.

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20
Q

How much do glial cells outnumber neurons?

A

Glial cells outnumber neurons by about 10:1

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21
Q

Are the glial cells in the CNS or PNS?

A

The glial cells are in both the CNS and PNS.

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22
Q

Which types of glial cells are in the CNS?

A
  • Ependyman cells
  • Oligodendrocytes
  • Astrocytes
  • Microglia
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23
Q

Which types of glial cells are in the PNS?

A
  • Satellite cells

- Schwann cells

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24
Q

What are ependymal cells?

A

They are in the CNS, they are line cavities that line the CSF-filled ventricles in the brain and the central canal of the spinal cord.

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25
What are oligodendrocytes?
They are in the CNS. Their main function is to provide support and insulation to axons in the CNS, they do this by creating the myelin sheath.
26
What are Astrocytes?
They are in the CNS. They are the star shaped cells in the brain and spinal cord. They have many functions including biochemical support of endothelial cells that form the blood-brain barrier, provision of nutrients to the nervous tissue, maintenance of the extracellular ion balance, and a role in repair and scanning process of the brain and spinal cord following traumatic injuries.
27
What are microglia?
They are in the CNS. They are located throughout the brain and spinal cord, they account for 10-15% of all cells found within the brain. They act as the first and main form of active immune defence in the CNS. Eg. if something happens to the brain after a stroke, they will attack the area and eat away all scar tissue. They closely integrate with the blood and white blood cells.
28
What are satellite cells?
They are in the PNS. They cover the surface of nerve cell bodies in sensory, sympathetic and parasympathetic ganglia. They act as protective, cushioning cells and express a variety of receptors that allow for a range of interactions with neuroactive chemicals.
29
What are Schwann cells?
They are in the PNS. These are any of the cells in the PNS that produce the myelin sheath around neuronal axons. They insulate too.
30
What are the functions of neurons?
They have highly specified functions, depending on where they are and what their connections are.
31
How much energy do neurons consume?
Neurons consume a large amount of energy, around 25% of all calories consumed.
32
What are some of the longest living cells in the body?
Neurons
33
Neurons are irreplaceable, and are amitotic, what does this mean?
Neurons are amitotic, this means that they loose their ability to divide
34
Almost all neurons share the same basic structure, what are the four main parts of this structure?
- Dendrites (Inputs) - Soma (Cell body) - Axon (Transmission line) - Axon Terminals (Outputs)
35
What is the Neural Network?
This is machine learning that is largely based on neurons of the nervous system.
36
What do they use as an artificial neuron in Neural Network?
Perception
37
What are the myelin sheath gaps otherwise known as?
Nodes of the Ranvier
38
What are the nodes of the Ranvier?
Sometimes called the myelin sheath gap, they are the only parts of the axon of the neuron that are uninsulated. Therefore they are the only parts of the axon that allow the electrical activity, and are effectively depolarized.
39
What is depolarization?
Depolarization is the exchange of positive and negative ions between the interior and exteriors of the axon.
40
Is the axon of the neuron positive or negatively charged?
The inside of the axon is negatively charged, and the outside of the axon is positively charged.
41
As an electrical pulse travels up the axon of a neuron, what happens?
As an electrical pulse travels up the axon of a neuron, it depolarizes every spot that is in contact with the positively charged ions (nodes). This makes the impulse hop from one node to another, and thus speeds up the electrical transition. This is similar to power transmission lines.
42
Where is the information from an electrical pulse going through a neutron stored?
Information is coded in the frequency/rate of the sequence.
43
What are the different types of neuron?
- Bipolar - Unipolar - Multipolar - Pyrimdal Cell
44
What are bipolar neurons otherwise known as ?
Interneuron
45
What are unipolar neurons?
Unipolar neurons make up the majority of sensory neurons
46
What are multipolar neurons otherwise known as?
Motoneuron
47
What are pyrimdal neurons?
Pyrimdal cells receive lots of inputs, but have only one output. They are typically in the brain.
48
What does the Central Nervous System consist of ?
The CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord.
49
What does the brain do?
The brain sorts out sensory information and gives orders. It is responsible for all complex functions.
50
What does the spinal cord do?
The spinal cord conducts two way signals between the brain and the rest of the body. It is also responsible for reflexes.
51
Give an example of a reflex from the non-brain processing centre.
Knee jerk reaction
52
In the knee jerk reaction, what does the hammer do?
The hammer injects a stimulus to the system
53
When the muscle is hit during knee jerk, what does it do?
The muscle spindals are in charge of sensing the length of the muscle. When you hit the muscle, the sense of the length changes, very small.
54
What is a ganglion?
A ganglion is an area with lots of cells
55
What muscles are involved in the knee jerk reaction?
Quadriceps and hamstrings
56
Where does the signal travel at first in the knee jerk reaction?
The signal goes via the nerves via the dorsal root ganglion. It then travels to the white matter.
57
When the signal is travelling on the way back from the knee jerk reaction, what are the two branches it could take?
1. Connection (axon connection) to the dendrites of another cell. The signal then goes back to the same muscle. A transmission time 4-5 milliseconds 2. The second path goes to the interneuron and then to a motoneuron and then the hamstring muscle (antagonist muscle). The hamstring reacts to the signal in the quadriceps muscle, keeping the integrity of the biomechanical unit.
58
How is the brain divided?
The brain is divided into specialised regions that may or may not interact with each other to produce an action.
59
How do we learn about the brain?
Most of what we know about the brain and how it works comes from studies of when things go wrong.
60
What are the sections of the brain (we're studying)?
- Frontal lobe - Parietal lobe - Occipital lobe - Cerebellum lobe - Brainstem - Temporal lobe
61
What does the frontal lobe do?
The frontal lobe performs higher cognitive functions. Long term memories are stored here. It allows us to be aware of the self. It also contains the brocas area and motor cortex
62
What does the frontal lobe contain?
1. Brocas area- for language and speech. | 2. Motor cortex - for motor action.
63
What is the brocas area for?
For language and speech (saying the words)
64
What is the motor cortex for?
For motor action, it controls the voluntary movements.
65
What is the parietal lobe responsible for?
The parietal lobe is responsible for visual attention and touch perception. It allows us to integrate senses, to conceptualise key features of the world around us. It also contains the somatosensory cortex and the dorsal stream of the visual system.
66
What does the parietal lobe contain?
- Somatosensory cortex; for detecting touch/pain sensations | - Dorsal stream of the visual system. Integrates information from different sources and puts things together.
67
What does the occipital lobe do?
The occipital lobe is responsible for vision, it contains the visual cortex. Visual information is received from the retinae and processed here.
68
What is special about our visual processing areas?
Humans have one of the largest visual processing areas of all animals, this is due to the complexity of the things that we see.
69
What is the cerebellum?
The cerebellum is responsible for fine motor control. Balance and fine movements are processed here. Reflex memory is also stored here. It also helps to control the perception of time.
70
What is the brainstem?
The brainstem is the area of the brain that is responsible for the low level autonomic system; heart rate, swallowing reflex, blood pressure, digestion, temperature, sweating and levels of alertness. It provides a link to the spinal cord.
71
What is the temporal lobe?
The temporal lobe is responsible for auditory perception, speech memory and learning. It works alongside the visual information, for example if you can hear a song, this part of the brain will imagine/invisage the singers face. The temporal lobe also contains the ventral stream of the visual cortex, the auditory cortex, the Wernicke region and the hippocampus.
72
What does the temporal lobe contain?
1. Ventral stream of the visual cortex- what patheay 2. Auditory cortex- for processing sound 3. Wernicke region- for speech. This is more the organisation of the order of the words ( stroke patients) 4. Hippocampus- for memory formation.
73
The PNS has sensory nerve receptors that allow you to interpret the world, name them:
- Thermoreceptors - Photoreceptors - Chemoreceptors - Mechanoreceptors - Nocireceptors
74
What are the six senses of primates?
- Hearing - Vestibular - Sight - Smell - Taste - Somatosensory
75
What is vestibular?
Responsible for balance
76
What is Somatosensory?
Responsible for touch and pain

Biomedical Engineering (13 decks)

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