D_G_S_I_N

1. USOI
2. UOMA
3. EOIT
4. OGUU
Neural Control
2011 Spring
 Lecture 38: Introduction to the Nervous
System
1. Who has nerves?

2. What do nerves do?

3. Neuron design?

4. How do neurons pass information along the length of the

neuron? That is, how does an action potential propagate?

5. How do neurons communicate with other neurons or

effectors?
Multi-cellular Organism
Information highways
1. Hormones – slow
2. Neurons - fast
 Why care about the nervous system?

• Below: Components of the animal mechanism for maintaining

homeostasis in response to a change in internal environmental
conditions.
Stimulus

RECEPTOR INTEGRATOR EFFECTOR

(e.g., nerve) (e.g., brain) (e.g., gland)

Response (change)
feedback

• Nervous system plays key role as receptors, pathways for

transmitting information, integration and relaying commands for
response by effector.
 What is the nervous system?

• Organ system that

•detects stimuli
•integrates information and
•relays commands
• In complex organisms, responsible for
memory.

• Fundamental units of forming tissues

and organs: ∙ neurons
∙ glial cells
 What organisms actually use a nervous system to detect and
respond to stimuli?
• All living organisms detect & respond to stimuli
• Nervous system can only exist in
multicellular organisms (select groups
within Eukarya) but which ones?
Mollusca
Annelida
Brachiopoda
Gymnolaemata
Nematoda
Arthropoda
Rotifera
Trematoda
Echinodermata
Animals
Urochordata
Cephalochordata
Craniata
Cnidaria
Ctenophora
Porifera

After Valentine (2005)

 Sea
Anemone

‘lowest’
organisms to
have a nervous
system
 What are the three general classes of neurons?

• 1. Sensory neurons

∙ Detect stimulus & relay stimulus to

interneurons

• 2. Interneurons
∙ Integrators of information from
sensory neurons

• 3. Motor neurons
∙ communicates signal to effectors

∙ signal can be;

∙ inhibitory ∙ excitatory
Organization in Higher Animals –
Humans too
• Nervous System
– Central Nervous System
• Brain
• Spinal Cord
– Peripheral Nervous System
• Somatic – Control over muscles
• Autonomic
– Sympathetic
– Parasympathetic
 What is the structure of a neuron cell?
How does it reflect its function?
• 4 major zones:
∙ 1. Input zone - composed of

∙ dendrites – cytoplasmic extensions receive signals (input)

∙ cell body – dendrites extend from cell body

Motor neuron

dendrites
INPUT ZONE
cell body

Fig
34.6
What is the structure of a neuron? How does it reflect its function?
∙ 2. Trigger zone – patch of membrane adjoining input zone where
input becomes encoded into ‘action potential’ if stimulus
sufficiently large
∙ 3. Conducting zone – ‘wire’ delivers signal from input location (where
cell body /dendrites are) to destination location where axon terminates
∙ axon – cytoplasmic extension which propagates signal received
at input (if strong enough) in form of ‘action potential’
Motor neuron
dendrites
INPUT ZONE
cell body

axon

TRIGGER ZONE
Fig CONDUCTING ZONE
34.6
What is the structure of a neuron? How does it reflect its function?

∙ 4. Output zone – composed of

∙ Branched ending of many axons where action potential is

converted to a chemical signal to be passed to neighboring
cells

Motor neuron
dendrites
INPUT ZONE
cell body

axon OUPUT ZONE

TRIGGER ZONE
CONDUCTING ZONE axon
endings
Fig 34.6
Where is the longest human neuron?

• Answer: Base of spine to toe!

• Over 1m long

• Giant Squid neurons

 How does a neuron (any neuron) pass along a signal?

• Involves 2 steps:
1) input must generate an action potential (AP)
∙ AP originates at trigger zone as a result of stimulus
received at input zone
∙ travels along axon to output zone

∙ no action potential, no signal propagation

2) Action potential induces release of neurotransmitters

at output zone

∙ neurotransmitters are chemicals released from axon endings

∙ generates response in next neuron or cells of effector

 What is an action potential (AP)?
How are they caused? How do they work?

• self-propagating electrical signal caused by an abrupt reversal in the

voltage difference across a plasma membrane of a neuron
What is the electrochemical structure of the neuron?
How does this enable an action potential?

∙ At rest neurons (ie. unstimulated) maintain an electrical

gradient across plasma membrane = resting potential = -70 mV

Interstitial fluid

Plasma
membrane

Fig
34.8 Cytoplasm
 What causes this charge difference (i.e. resting potential)?
• Due to creation & maintenance of differences in concentration of
potassium (K+) and sodium (Na+) ions on inside and outside of
membrane
∙ Sodium higher outside ∙ Potassium higher inside
 What creates the Na+ and K+ gradients in the first place?
• Sodium-potassium pump – a transmembrane protein that pumps
Na+ ions to the outside and K+ ions into the inside (cytoplasm)
∙ Na+/K+ pumps require ATP = active transport
∙ 3 Na pumped for every 2 K allowed in!

Interstitial fluid
+ Na+ pumped out K+ Na
(outside)
+
Plasma membrane -70mV

Cytoplasm - K+ pumped in K+ Na+

Na+/K+ pump
 Why don’t Na+ and K+ flow back (into/out of the cell) along their
concentration gradients? i.e. What maintains these gradients?
• K+ and Na+ can only move through channels (transport proteins),
not plasma membrane
a) Na+ movement controlled by passive transporters with voltage
sensitive gated channels that are closed when neuron at rest.
∙ There is always the tiniest bit of Na+ leaking into cell via incompletely
sealed channels

Interstitial fluid
Na+ +

Cytoplasm
leaking
Na+ -
Passive transporters with voltage- Lipid bilayer of neuron
sensitive gated channels membrane
 Why don’t Na+ and K+ flow back (into and out of the cell) along
their concentration gradients? I.e. What maintains these gradients?
b) K+ can only move via passive transporters with open channels
∙ K+ can diffuse out of cell along concentration gradient when cell at rest
∙ BUT movement out makes cytoplasm slightly more negative attracting
some K+ back into the cell
∙ K+ concentration gradient maintained by balance btw diffusion out and
diffusion back in due to electrical gradient
Interstitial fluid
K+ Na+ +

K+ Na+
Cytoplasm -
Passive transporters
with open channels
 So what maintains these gradients in neuron at rest despite
the leaking?

• Na+/K+ pumps which return leaked Na+ ions to the outside (and
some K+ ions to the inside) to maintain the gradients and thus the
voltage difference across the plasma membrane.

Na+ pumped out

Interstitial fluid
K+ Na+ +

K+ Cytoplasm Na+ -
K+ pumped in
 What determines whether or not an action potential occurs?
• Stimulus elicits an electrical disturbance in input zone.
∙ Causes some Na+ ions to flow into the neuron.

Motor neuron
dendrites
INPUT ZONE
cell body

axon OUPUT ZONE

TRIGGER ZONE
CONDUCTING ZONE axon
endings

∙ If stimulus is intense enough or lasts long enough, disturbance reaches

the trigger zone.
∙ Trigger zone is rich with gated sodium channels, creating potential for
mass diffusion of Na+ down concentration & electrical gradients.
What can happen once the electrical disturbance reaches the trigger
zone?
• 1. Disturbance strong enough to elicit action potential.

∙ Happens when enough sodium channels open in trigger zone to

trigger positive feedback loop leading more channels to open.
Na+ in
Interstitial
fluid

Cytoplasm becomes
more positive

Causes more voltage gated

cytoplasm Na+ channels to open

∙ Called depolarization - charge difference across membrane decreasing,

i.e. not so polarized – value increasing from -70 to -10 to + 30
 What determines if sufficient depolarization to set positive
feedback loop in motion?
• Positive feedback loop initiated once reach threshold level
membrane potential (i.e. depolarized to threshold potential).

∙ At threshold, Na+ gates

opening because of
positive feedback, no
longer depends upon
strength or duration of
stimulus.

∙ Once reach threshold, positive feedback ensures action potential will

happen.
What can happen once the electrical disturbance reaches the trigger
zone?
• 2. What happens if stimulation of input zone is not sufficient to
cause enough depolarization to reach threshold in trigger zone?
∙ action potential will not happen Fig 34.9

∙ too few Na+ crossed the

membrane to initiated positive
feedback loop
∙ neuron will be returned to
resting potential.

∙ What restores resting

potential?
 What is an example of a phenotype that results from inability
to trigger an action potential?
• Discovered gene that results in an inability to sense pain in family
in Pakistan (Nature. 2006. 444: 831)
∙ Individuals with condition (homozygous recessive) injure
themselves all the time because lack signal that tissue damaged.

Why feel no pain?

• mutation in gene coding for Na+ channel in nerves responsible for

pain detection.

∙ mutation results in non-functional Na+ channel

∙ unable to trigger action potential in pain neurons

• mutation in same gene causes over sensitivity to stimuli causing

erythromelalgia – severe pain in response to mild stimuli, ex. mild
warmth
 What happens after threshold reached to complete action
potential?
• Enough sodium gates open to reverse membrane potential:
- outside, + inside.
Na+
• With voltage reversal, K+

∙ Na+ gates close

∙ K+ gates open = gated K+ channel, differs

from open channel responsible for resting Fig 34.8
potential -

∙ K+ diffuses out along concentration and

electrical gradient

∙ Restores voltage difference to + outside &

- inside (actually overshoots a bit).
+
 Another action potential cannot immediately occur in
this location. Why?
Fig 34.8

• Voltage gated Na+ channels have

refractory period.

∙ Brief time when Na+ gates cannot

open again after they have opened
and closed in course of previous
action potential.
 What causes the action potential to move along the axon away
from the trigger zone?
• Preceding about processes taking place in one location of membrane.

• Disturbance caused by action potential in one part of membrane,

initiates action potential at adjacent site.
 So how is the signal propagated down the axon?
• So signal is passed down axon from trigger zone to output zone as a
series of action potentials, one initiating the next.

Trigger zone Output zone

Team Questions: 5 points:
A poison that specifically disables the Na+/K+ pumps is added to a
culture of neurons. What effect does this eventually have on the
neurons?

a) The resting membrane potential goes to 0%

zero.
b) The inside of the neuron would become 0%
more negative relative to the outside.
0%
c) The inside of the neuron would become
positively charged relative to the outside. 0%
d) Sodium would diffuse out of the cell and
potassium would diffuse into the cell.
Team Questions: 5 points:
A(n) ___ in Na+ permeability and/or a(n) ___ in K+ permeability
across a neuron’s plasma membrane would cause a shift in the
membrane potential from -70 mV to -80mV.
a) increase; increase 0%
b) increase; decrease 0%
0%
c) decrease; increase 0%
d) decrease; decrease 0%
e) none of the above
 How is signal communicated from cell to cell?
• Signal must be passed from neuron to another neuron (ex. from
sensory neuron to interneuron) or to an effector. How?
Fig 34.10
What is a chemical synapse?
∙ Joint between output zone of one
neuron and input zone of another
neuron or between output zone &
plasma membrane an effector cell. Presynaptic cell

Presynaptic cell

Synaptic Postsynaptic
cleft = gap cell’s plasma
Postsynaptic cell membrane
 What happens when the action potential reaches the
output zone?
• Action potential typically causes neuron to release molecules of a
class of biochemicals called a neurotransmitters from synaptic vessel.
∙ Ex. serotonin, dopamine, melatonin
Fig 34.10
• Synaptic vessels fuse with
plasma membrane of
presynaptic cell & release
neurotransmitter into synaptic synaptic
vesicle
cleft.

synaptic
cleft
membrane
receptor
 What does the neurotransmitter do?
• Diffuses across synapse & binds to receptors on plasma membrane of
postsynaptic cell, which opens ion channels.
∙ Ions (ex. Ca++, Na+, K+) diffuse into postsynaptic cell
∙ Biochemical signal converted back into electrical signal =
flowing ions.
neurotransmitter
Ions (in synaptic cleft)

receptor for
neurotransmitter

gated channel protein

(postsynaptic cell)
 How do these ions affect the postsynaptic cell?
• May have excitatory effect on postsynaptic cell
∙ Act to depolarize membrane and thus, increase chances that trigger
zone will receive sufficient stimulation to drive it to the threshold
and initiate action potential.

• May have inhibitory effect on postsynaptic cell

∙ Move membrane farther away from threshold – increase polarization =
hyperpolarization – reduce chances of action potential.
∙ Ex. GABA and valium

What determines whether postsynaptic cell is excited or inhibited?

• Type & concentration of • Number & type of voltage
neurotransmitter gated channels
• Number & type of receptors • Type of cell it is
 Which of the following choices best describes
what is happening at step four in the graph
below?
1. Some Na channels close. 0%
2. Most Na channels open. 0%
3. Some K channels close. 0%
4. Most K channels open. 0%
5. Na/K pumps are
inactivated. 0%