Intro to Nervous system

All 'nervous tissue' is found in the body. 

Two types of cells in the nervous system:

Neurons and Glial cells

 

Two subsystems: 

1. Central Nervous System (CNS)

- Brain and Spinal cord

2. Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

- Everything other than the brain and spinal cord

- Sensory connections to receptors in the skin 

- Motor connections to body muscles

- Sensory and motor connections to internal body organs and gut

 

Functional organisation

CNS

- Mediates behaviour

Somatic Nervous system - part of PNS

- transmits sensation and produces movement

- cranial nerves and spinal nerves

Automatic Nervous system  - part of PNS

- balances internal functions

- Sympathetic - arousing

- Parasympathetic - relaxing

Enteric Nervous system 

- controls gut

 

Anatomy and function of the Brain

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• The brain is an organ found in the skull of vertebrates
• Coordinating centre for sensation and intellectual activity
• Exerts control over behaviour
• Main divisions: Forebrain, Midbrain, Hindbrain

Forebrain

• also known as Cerebrum
• Most complex and highly evolved part of the brain, responsible for most concscious behaviour
• Two hemispheres connected by corpus callosum 
• Outer layer = the Cerebral Cortex

1. Occipital lobe - where visual processing begins, visual cortex
2. Temporal lobe - hearing, language, Auditory cortex, Long-term memory
3. Parietal lobe - Processing information about touch, somatosensory cortex, integrates sensory information from different modalities, spatial processing
4. Frontal lobe - executive functions (planning, decision making), personality, motor cortex

 

Blood supply and Brain damage

- Stroke - sudden appearance of neurological symptoms as a result of severely interrupted blood flow

 

Anatomy and function of the CNS: Subcortical structures

The Limbic System 

- the emotional brain

- brouad functions include: emotional and sexual behaviours, survival mechanisms, memory, spatial navigation

Principal structures: 

- cingulate cortex

- hippocampus

- amygdala

- hypothalamus

 

Hindbrain

- "the old brain"

-includes cerebellum, pons, medulla - reticular formation

- coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord

- also known as Brainstem

- more primitive part of the brain, responsible for most unconscious behaviour

Diencephalon

- thalamus and hypothalamus

Midbrain

- tectum and tegmentum