Introduction to the nervous

system
HUL261
Introduction to Psychology, Semester II, 2022-23
Module II
Lecture 4
January 16, 2023
 Outline of today’s lecture
• Recap of previous lecture
• Overview of the nervous system
• Neurons & glia
• Resting membrane potential
References
• Action potential - Kandel Principles of neural science
- Purves Neuroscience
• Electrical conduction in neurons

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 Recap of previous lecture
• Psychology is an old discipline but is a new science (just about
150 years old)
• Psychological research study various levels – individual or
social
• Before performing a psychological study, the ethics of it has to
be carefully evaluated

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NubJ2ThK_U
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 Overview of the nervous system
• The two main divisions of the nervous system are:
• Central nervous system (CNS)
• It consists of the brain and spinal cord
• It functions as the command-and-control center of the nervous system
• Peripheral nervous system (PNS)
• It consists of the nerves (bundles of axons and glial cells) and ganglia (clumps
of nerve cell bodies) outside of the CNS
• It functions as the courier network that delivers sensory information to the CNS
and carries motor commands from the CNS to the muscles
• The activities of the nervous system are accomplished through two
subsystems:
• The somatic motor system that controls the voluntary muscles of the body
• The autonomic motor system that controls the automated visceral functions

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 Overview of the nervous system
• ANS has three subdivisions: the sympathetic, the
parasympathetic, and the enteric branches
• The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
frequently operate antagonistically:
• Sympathetic system increases heart rate, diverts blood from the
digestive tract to the muscles, and prepares the body for action
(fight or flight)
• Parasympathetic system slows heart rate, stimulates digestion, and
in general helps the body with functions germane to maintaining
itself (rest and digest)
• Enteric nervous system
• It is located within the wall of the digestive tract
• It controls various digestive functions but can also affect mood!

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Watch later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0raVj1BA7iU
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 Cells of the nervous system

Neurons
• Neurons are the basic signaling
units that transmit information
throughout the nervous system
• There are ~86 billion neurons in
the human brain
Glia
• Glia perform supportive functions
which help define synaptic
contacts and maintain the signaling
abilities of neurons
• There are at least the same
number of glia in the brain with
some regions having 10x more glia
than neurons

Previously it was thought that glia do not have much role to play – this might
have also added to the myth of that we use only 10% of our brains
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 More on glia
• The word glia is Greek for “glue” and reflects the 19th century
presumption that these cells “held the nervous system together.”
• There are different types of glial cells, namely astrocytes,
oligodendrogliocytes, schwann cells, and microglia
• Glial functions include:
• Maintaining the ionic milieu of nerve cells (Astrocytes)
• Generates myelin that increases the speed of information
flow (Oligodendrogliocyte in the CNS and Schwann cell in
the PNS)
• Devours and removes damaged cells from sites of injury or
help in normal cell turnover (Microglia)

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 More on neurons
• The cell body of a neuron contains the metabolic machinery that
maintains the neuron
• The neuron sits in salty extracellular fluid made up of a mixture of
ions (Na+, K+, Cl-, Ca2+, etc.)
• Functionally, neurons generally have four important zones:
1. Dendrites are branching extensions of the neuron that receive inputs
from other neurons
2. The initial segment where signals received from other neurons are
integrated
3. Axon which conducts the integrated signal to the nerve endings.
Often axons are covered by myelin except at gaps called nodes of
Ranvier
4. The nerve endings where the neuron outputs its signal to the next
neuron

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 Resting membrane potential
• In a typical resting neuron the voltage of the inside of the cell
is about 65 mV more negative than the voltage outside the
cell. This is called the resting membrane potential
• When the membrane potential becomes more positive, it is
called depolarization, while when the membrane potential
becomes more negative, it is called hyperpolarization
• The resting membrane potential results from two factors:
• Unequal distribution of electrically charged ions, in particular Na+ and
K+ ions
• Selective permeability of the membrane. This is due membrane
proteins called ion channels and ion pumps that selectively allow only
certain ions to flow

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 Electrical conduction in neurons
• Neurons produce two main types of
electrical activity:
• Postsynaptic potentials (PSP) are small changes in
membrane potential which arise when neurotransmitters
bind to postsynaptic receptors causing ion channels to
open or close
• Action potential (also called spikes) is a brief (1-2 ms) and
explosive change in membrane potential to +40 mV and
is the main form of communication in the nervous system

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 Action potential
• At rest, [K+]inside > [K+]outside & [Na+]inside < [Na+]outside ; Inside voltage is -65 mV
compared to outside
• An action potential progresses in these steps:
1. A PSP increases the membrane potential from -70 to -55 mV (threshold)
2. This causes a rapid but transient opening of proteins called Na+ channels that
leads to a huge inflow in Na+ along its electrochemical gradient taking the
potential to +40 mV
3. This voltage change activates slower K+ channels so K+ moves out of the cell
along its electrochemical gradient leading to a decrease in positivity
4. The K+ conductance briefly becomes higher than that in the resting state
leading to greater negativity than the resting state (hyperpolarisation)
5. This increased negativity inactivates the K+ channels allowing the membrane to
return to resting membrane potential
• Action potential is ‘all-or-none’: Stimuli < threshold do not produce a signal,
but stimuli > threshold all produce signals of the same amplitude but
increase the frequency of action potentials
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 How the action potential moves along the
axon
• Axons are long and are leaky conductors
• If the electrical current had to passively move along the
axon, the potential would fall to a small fraction of its initial
value within a few mm because of leakage
• Hence electrical conduction in the axons involve both
passive and active transport
• The local current generated by the action potential flows
passively down the axon and depolarizes the membrane
potential in the adjacent region of the axon, thus opening the
Na+ channels in the neighboring membrane
• The local depolarization triggers an action potential in this
region, which then spreads again in a continuing cycle until
the action potential reaches the end of the axon
• Because action potentials are being continuously generated,
this is time-consuming
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 How the action potential moves along the
axon
• Electrical conduction in the axons can be speeded up by 200-fold
by myelination (formed Schawann cells and oligodendrogliocytes)
• Myelin acts as an electrical insulator thereby greatly speeding up
action potential conduction
• Myelin covers the axons completely except at the nodes of Ranvier
• An action potential generated at one node of Ranvier elicits current
that flows passively within the axon until the next few nodes are
reached
• This local current flow then generates an action potential in the
neighboring node, and the cycle is repeated along the length of the
axon
• This type of propagation is called saltatory (from the Latin ‘saltare’,
to jump), meaning that the action potential jumps from node to
node

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1ibVlGflPs 20
 Conclusion
• The nervous system has two types of cells, neurons and glia
• Neurons are the basic signaling unit while glia play a more supporting role
• Neurons receive inputs at dendrites and send outputs via axons
• The resting membrane potential results from the unequal distribution of
ions, and the selective permeability of the membrane
• Ion channels and ion pumps help maintain the resting membrane potential
• Action potential is generated when the threshold potential is reached and
requires voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels
• Myelin greatly speeds up action potential conduction

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