Nervous System I

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 Nervous System
• Helps maintain homeostasis by …
– Integration and control

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 Nervous System
• The nervous system is one of the two
organ systems that tell other tissues
what to do …

(the other is the endocrine system)

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 CNS & PNS
• Central Nervous System (CNS)
– Brain and spinal cord
– Completely encased in bone
• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
– Everything else
– 12 pairs of cranial nerves
– 31 pairs of spinal nerves

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 CNS & PNS
• CNS: clusters of cell bodies are
called nuclei
• PNS: clusters of cell bodies are
called ganglia

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 Integration & Control
• Detect changes in homeostasis
• Issue an “order,” usually in the form
of a chemical messenger, to
target cells, tissues, organs, etc.
• Watch for response
– Usually negative feedback, sometimes
positive feedback

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 Integration & Control

Nervous System Endocrine System

• Fast • Slow
• Expensive • Inexpensive
• Neurotransmitter • Hormone
• Very specific, • Any target cell with
target cells on the the right kind of
other side of synapse receptor

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 Nervous Tissue
• Neurons
– Sensory neurons (afferent neurons)
– Interneurons (association neurons)
– Motor neurons (efferent neurons)
• Neuroglia
– Oligodendrocytes
– Astrocytes
– Ependymal cells
– Microglia
– Schwann cells & satellite cells

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 Neurons
• Communication requires:
– Excitability (irritability)
– Conductivity
– Secretion of neurotransmitter

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 “Typical” Neuron
• Soma or cell body
– Dark staining regions of RER called
Nissl bodies
• Dendrites (from 1 to 1000s per neuron)
• Axon (0 or 1 per neuron)
– Axon hillock
– Axon collaterals
– Axon terminals (synaptic knobs)

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 Structural Classification
• Multipolar neurons
• Unipolar neurons
• Bipolar neurons
• Anaxonic neurons

[afferent neuron, association neuron,

efferent neuron is a functional
classification]

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 Axonal Transport
• E.g., in a motor neuron the cell body
and the end of the axon may be
separated by > 1 meter
• Have to be able to move things from the
cell body all the way down
– Fast axonal transport (20-400 mm/day)
– Slow axonal transport (0.5-10 mm/day)

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 Neuroglia
• Oligodendrocytes
– Occur in CNS
– Form myelin sheath, insulation that
speeds up signal conduction

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 Neuroglia
• Astrocytes
– Occur in CNS, very abundant
– Part of the blood-brain barrier, i.e.,
nutrients, wastes and so on have to go
through the astrocyte to cross between
the blood and the neurons

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 Neuroglia
• Ependymal cells
– Occur in CNS
– Resemble cuboidal epithelium, but no
basement membrane and not derived from
the embryonic epithelial tissue
– Line the canals and ventricles, produce
cerebrospinal fluid or CSF

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 Neuroglia
• Microglia
– Occur in CNS
– Small macrophages (develop from
white blood cells), phagocytize dead
cells, pathogens, debris, etc.

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 Neuroglia
• Schwann cells (neurilemmocytes)
– Occur in PNS
– Form myelin sheath much like that formed
by the oligodendrocytes in the CNS

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 Neuroglia
• Satellite cells
– Occur in PNS
– Found next to neuron cell bodies in
ganglia, uncertain function

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 Myelin
• Oligodendrocytes in CNS, Schwann
cells in PNS, many layers of plasma
membrane around axon
• Segmented: gaps = nodes of Ranvier
or neurofibril nodes
• “Saltatory conduction”

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 Myelin
• Outer layer of glial cell = neurilemma,
present even in unmyelinated nerves
– Wraps around once = unmyelinated
– Wraps around many times = myelinated

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 Gray & White Matters
• Gray matter: cell bodies and
unmyelinated axons
• White matter: mostly myelinated axons

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 Conduction
• Larger diameter axon = faster
conduction
• Myelin = faster conduction

• A fibers (large, myelinated) up to

140 m/sec
• C fibers (small, unmyelinated) around
1 m/sec

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 Regeneration
• In the PNS, a damaged nerve can
regenerate if the cell body and
at least a little neurilemma survive
• Doesn’t work the same way in the CNS
(at least, not yet)

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 Synapse
• Electrical synapse: gap junctions
connect cells
– Found in smooth muscle and cardiac
muscle, rare in nervous tissues
• Chemical synapse: neurotransmitter
released into synaptic cleft

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 Chemical Synapse
• Neurotransmitter stored in synaptic
vesicles within presynaptic cell,
released in response to Ca+2 ions from
extracellular fluid
• Receptors on postsynaptic cell,
generally chemically-gated ion channels

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 EPSP
• EPSP = Excitatory postsynaptic potential
– Temporarily depolarizes membrane of
postsynaptic cell
– Neurotransmitter usually acetyl choline (ACh)
– May need 10+ EPSPs to get postsynaptic cell to
reach threshold
– Limited duration, acetylcholinesterase (AChE)
degrades ACh within synaptic cleft

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 IPSP
• Inhibitory postsynaptic potential
– Temporarily hyperpolarizes postsynaptic
membrane
– Neurotransmitter often GABA (gamma
amino butyric acid)
– Opens K+ and Cl- channels,
hyperpolarizes membrane
– Makes it harder for postsynaptic cell to
reach threshold

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 Summation
• Temporal summation
– Many EPSPs or IPSPs arriving in a
short period of time (might all be coming
from the same presynaptic neuron)
• Spatial summation
– Many EPSPs and IPSPs arriving from
many different neurons (but at about the
same time)

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 Neurotransmitters
• Biogenic amines
– Epinephrine (adrenaline)
– Norepinephrine (noradrenaline)
– Dopamine
– Serotonin
– Histamine

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 Other Neurotransmitters
• Excitatory amino acids
– Glutamate
– Aspartate
• Inhibitory amino acids
– GABA
– Glycine

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 Other Neurotransmitters
• Neuropeptides
– Endorphins, enkaphalins, dynorphins
(opiates target some of these receptors)
• Dissolved gasses
– CO (carbon monoxide)
– NO (nitric oxide)
• Others

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 pH & Homeostasis
• Acidosis: depresses neuronal activity
pH < 7.0 produces coma
• Alkalosis: increases excitability
pH > 7.8 produces coma

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 Poisons & Drugs
• Curare: competes with ACh for
receptors on motor end plate, causes
muscle paralysis and suffocation
• Atropine: also blocks ACh from binding
to receptor (anticholinergic), but not as
completely

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 Poisons & Drugs
• Nerve gas, some pesticides:
inactivates AChE for up to several
weeks
• Prostigmine: temporarily blocks AChE,
helps in myasthenia gravis

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 Poisons & Drugs
• Caffeine: reduces threshold
• Botulism toxin: prevents release of ACh
• Nicotine: mimics ACh, turns on a wide
variety of excitatory stimuli

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 Central Nervous System
• Structural classification
– Cerebrum
– Cerebellum
– Brainstem
– Spinal cord

• Also classify by developmental region

(something-cephalon)

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 CNS Development
• Neural tube forms by the 4th week of
embryonic development, divided into:
– Prosencephalon: forebrain
– Mesencephalon: midbrain
– Rhombencephalon: hindbrain
– Spinal cord

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 Forebrain
• Prosencephalon (forebrain) develops
into telencephalon (left and right
hemispheres of cerebrum) and
diencephalon (thalamus, epithalamus,
hypothalamus)

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 Hindbrain
• Rhombencephalon (hindbrain) develops
into metencephalon (pons and
cerebellum) and myelencephalon
(medulla oblongata)

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 Meninges
• Singular = meninx
• Dura mater = “tough mother”
• Arachnoid mater = “spider mother”
• Pia mater = “tender mother”

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 Dura Mater
• In the cranial cavity, the dura mater is
divided into a periosteal layer and a
meningeal layer
– These two layers separated in some
places by a dural sinus, which empties
into the venous circulation
• In the vertebral cavity, the dura mater is
separate from the bone (epidural space)

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 Dura Mater
• Meningeal layer folds inward to
produce:
– Falx cerebri, in longitudinal fissure,
between left and right hemispheres
– Falx cerebelli, between left and right
halves of cerebellum
– Tentorium cerebelli, in transverse fissure,
between cerebrum and cerebellum

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 Meningeal Spaces
• Epidural space: in vertebral cavity,
between dura mater and bone
• Subdural space: between dura mater
and arachnoid mater
• Subarachnoid space: between
arachnoid mater and pia mater
(where the CSF is)

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 Cerebrospinal Fluid
• Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF): produced by
choroid plexus, a network of modified
capillaries within each ventricle, as well
as within subarachnoid space and by
the ependymal cells lining ventricles

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 Cerebrospinal Fluid
• Three main purposes:
– Buoyancy (helps support weight of brain)
– Protection (shock absorber)
– Chemical stability (helps carry nutrients
and wastes around)

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 Cerebrospinal Fluid
• We each produce around 500 or
600 mL of CSF per day
• Capacity of ventricles and canals
only ~150 mL
• So we recycle all our CSF three or four
times per day
• Arachnoid villi protrude through dura
mater into sinuses

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 Lumbar Puncture
• Also called “spinal tap,” usually into
subarachnoid space between L3 and
L4 vertebrae

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 Blood Brain Barrier
• Capillaries have tight junctions between
cells, no leaking around endothelium
• Astrocytes cover capillary – all nutrients
and wastes go though astrocyte
between blood and neuron
• CSF significantly different from blood,
has more Na and Cl, less K

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 Telencephalon
• Left and Right Cerebral Hemispheres
– Frontal lobe
– Parietal lobe
– Occipital lobe
– Temporal lobe
– Insula

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 Telencephalon
• Frontal lobe
– Voluntary control of skeletal muscle
– Motivation, mood, intelligence
• Parietal lobe
– Evaluation of sensory information (pain,
touch, pressure, temperature, taste,
but not vision, hearing or smell)

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 Telencephalon
• Occipital lobe
– Vision
• Temporal lobe
– Smell and hearing
– Memory
• Insula
– Limbic system (emotion, memory)

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 Frontal Lobe
• Primary motor cortex: pyramidal cells,
precise control of voluntary movement
• Premotor cortex: extrapyramidal tracts,
control of learned, coordinated
movements

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 Frontal Lobe
• Frontal association area: sort of where
“you” are
– Ever hear of a frontal lobotomy?
• Broca’s area: controls speech, left
hemisphere in 95% of people

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 Diencephalon
• Thalamus: almost all sensory input to
cerebral cortex passes through the
thalamus
• Hypothalamus: homeostasis – controls
autonomic nervous system, endocrine
system
• Epithalamus: Mostly pineal gland (more
about this in 202)

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 Mesencephalon
• Midbrain: cerebral peduncles
(corticospinal tracts), substantia nigra
(Parkinson’s disease), corpora
quadrigemina (visual and auditory
reflexes)

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 Metencephalon
• Pons: sleep, hearing, equilibrium, taste,
eye movements, facial expressions, …
• Cerebellum: white matter called
arbor vitae, Purkinje cells, muscular
coordination

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 Myelencephalon
• Medulla oblongata: cardiac centers,
vasomotor center, respiratory centers

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 Consciousness
• Sleep and consciousness controlled by
the reticular formation, a loosely
organized region spread through the
pons, midbrain and medulla

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 Memory
• Short term memory (minutes to weeks) in
temporal lobe
– Also called primary memory
• Longer term memories processed through
amygdala and hippocampus (parts of limbic
system) on way to cerebral cortex
– Secondary memory fades
– Tertiary memory stays

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 Spinal Cord
• Cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral
regions names for the region where the
spinal nerves emerge
• Spinal cord itself stops around L1 or L2,
called the medullary cone
• Bundle of nerves below medullary cone
called the cauda equina

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 Spinal Cord
• No periosteal layer to dura mater – only
meningeal layer
• Gray matter and white matter arranged
differently from in brain

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 Riding a Bike
• Frontal association area
– Decides if and where, makes the plan
• Premotor cortex
– Since we’ve ridden a bike before …
• Primary motor cortex
– Sends the action potentials to the
motor units

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 Riding a Bike
• Brain stem
– Smoothes the “motion profile”
• Cerebellum
– Adjusts the motion profile as needed
to hit the target
• Parietal lobe
– Evaluates the sensory feedback (how well
is the plan working?)

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