WEEK 4 LECTURE FINISHED Flashcards
What does the CNS consist of?
Brain
Spinal cord
What does the Peripheral nervous system consist of?
CN’s - 12 pairs
Spinal Nerves - 31 pairs
What are the 2 components of the functional nervous system?
Autonomic nervous system
Somatic nervous system
What does the autonomic nervous system control?
Smooth muscle
Glands
Organs/viscera
What is the function of the nervous system?
Enables the body to react to continuous changes in the internal and external environment
Controls and integrates the various activities of the body e.g. circulation and respiration
What are the main cells of nervous tissue?
2 main cells
- Neurons/nerve cells
- Neuroglia (glia cells), support cells
Nerve cells to neuroglia cells ratio
1:5
What is the structural and functional unit of the nervous system?
The neuron
What are the 3 functional classes of neurons?
Efferent (motor)
Afferent (sensory)
Interneurons
What are the parts of a neuron?
Cell body
Dendrites (carry impulses to the cell)
Axon (Carry nerve impulses away from the cell body)
What are afferent neurons? Describe a typical afferent neuron. Where is the cell body located?
A sensory receptor which generates AP’s in response to a type of stimulus
Cell body has no dendrites, located adjacent to spinal cord.
Long peripheral axon extending between receptor and cell body
Short central axon from cell body to spinal cord, synapses with neurons in spinal cord
What are efferent neurons? What do they do? Where is the cell body located?
• Carry information from the CNS
- ‘e’ = from
- ‘ferent’ = carry
- Transmits instructions from the CNS to effector organs (mm, glands)
- Cell body originates w/n the spinal cord
What are Interneurons? Where are they situated? How many of them do we have approx?
- 99% of all neurons
- Lie entirely w/n the CNS
- 100 billion interneurons
- Inter = between
- Lie between afferent and efferent neurons
What does glial mean?
Glue
What are the 4 main types of neuroglial cells within the CNS? Describe them
- Astrocytes (physically support, neural scar tissue, help transmit nutrients, degrade neurotransmitters)
- Oligodendrocytes (myelin in CNS)
- Microglia (phagocytic, defence)
- Ependymal (line cavities, contribute to CSF, neural stem cells - neurone and glial)
Where are schwann cells found and what do they do?
Peripheral nervous system. They make myelin.
What is myelin? What does it do? What is it made by? What is an interruption between 2 segments of myelin called?
Myelin is a protein and lipid substance which helps by greatly increasing the velocity of impulse conduction.
It gives a fibre a white creamy colour.
Made by oligodendrocytes in the CNS
Made by schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system
Interruption = node of ranvier
MS: What is it?
MS is a progressive disease where there is demyelination of nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord
Synapses: what do they do? And how do they communicate between with each other?
Neurons communicate with each other at synapses, points of contact between neurons.
Neurons communicate via the release of chemical substances called neurotransmitters which may excite or inhibit the other neuron.
What is a collection of nerve cell bodies in the CNS known as?
Nucleus
What is a collection of axons in the CNS known as?
A tract
What is grey matter?
Nerve cell bodies
What is white matter?
Interconnecting fibre tract systems
How many horns are there in the spinal cord?
4
- Right anterior / ventral horn
- Left anterior/ ventral horn
- Right posterior / dorsal horn
- Left posterior / dorsal horn