Activity 4: From Stimulus to Response:

Pathways And Nervous Centers

Pages: 70-71
Anatomy: is the science that studies the structures of organisms
and their parts.

Physiology: is the science that studies the functions of organs.

 Goals of early physiological research
• Neuroanatomy – attempted to determine if
function could be localized in the nervous
system and how it was localized

• Neurophysiology – attempted to identify how

nerves worked.

• Neurophysiology – Bell, Magendie, Muller,

and Helmholtz (Mentor to Wilhelm Wundt).
The aims of Bell and Magendie experiments
1- determines the cell bodies of the nerve fibers
of the spinal nerves.
2- determine the nature of the dorsal and
ventral roots of the spinal nerve (whether
sensory or motor). Ventral root

Dorsal root
The aims of Bell and Magendie experiments
3-determine the direction of the nerve impulse
along the roots of the spinal nerve ad spinal
cord (elements of the reflex).
1- nature of spinal roots (sensory and motor )
Experiment animal’s reaction
Excitation of the ventral root of a spinal Contraction of the concerned part
nerve
Excitation of the dorsal root of the same Contraction and pain feeling
spinal nerve
2- direction of nerve impulse in the dorsal
root of the spinal nerve
Experimet Animal’s reaction State of innervated part
Sectioning of the dorsal root Loss of sensitivity and
maintained motor activity in the
region innervated by the nerve
A- excitation of the central end - Contraction and pain feeling.
B- excitation of the peripheral end - No response (reaction )
Section of dorsal root

Excitation of peripheral end Excitation of central end

2- direction of nerve impulse in the ventral
root of spinal nerve
Experimet Animal’s reaction State of innervated part
Sectioning of the ventral root Maintained sensitivity and total
loss of motor activity in the
region innervated by the nerve .
A- excitation of the central end - No Contraction.
B- excitation of the peripheral end - response (contraction )
Section of ventral root

Excitation of central end Excitation of peripheral end

 2- direction of nerve impulse in the root of
the spinal cord
Experiment Animal’s reaction State of innervated part

Sectioning of the spinal nerve

OR Total Loss of sensitivity and
Destruction of the spinal cord No reaction motor activity in the region
innervated by the nerve .
 Wallerian degeneration theorem
• Experiment conducted by the scientist
Augustus Volney Waller
• It means:
The degenerative changes the distal segment of
a peripheral nerve fiber (axon and myelin)
undergoes when its continuity with its cell body
is interrupted by a focal lesion.
 Wallerian degeneration
Nucleus contains all the necessary genetic
information for the survival of the cell. In
order to verify this hypothesis, the
following experiment were conducted.

A- describe the following experiment:

B- is the hypothesis validated:

3- the location of the cell bodies of
neurons Results of sectioning Significance

Degeneration of the
spinal nerve and intact
roots and spinal cord

A- degeneration of the
nerve fiber in this root to
the side of the spinal nerve
(before spinal ganglion).
B-degeneration of the nerve
fiber of this root to the side
of spinal cord(btw S.C &S.G)
Degeneration of nerve
fiber of this root along
the spinal nerve