Nervous system anatomy and physiology

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Nervous system anatomy and physiology

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A 65-year-old woman undergoes CT angiography of the head and neck. The patient is found to have a partial occlusion of the structure indicated by the arrow:  


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Which of the following blood vessels is primarily supplied by the affected structure?  

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First Aid

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Acetylcholine (ACh)

in nervous system p. 235

Anatomy

nervous system p. 502-523

Emotion

neural structures and p. 509

Epinephrine p. 241

in nervous system p. 235

Memory

neural structures and p. 509

Neurogenic ileus p. 239

Norepinephrine (NE)

in nervous system p. 235

Smooth muscle

nervous system and p. 235

Sweat glands

nervous system and p. 235

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The nervous system is involved in nearly everything we do - from how we see, to how we walk and talk.

The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system, so the brain and the spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system, which is further divided into the somatic and the autonomic nervous systems.

Broadly speaking, the nervous system can be split into an afferent and an efferent division.

The afferent division brings sensory information from the outside into the central nervous system, and includes visual receptors, auditory receptors, chemoreceptors, and somatosensory or touch receptors.

On the other hand, the efferent division brings motor information from the central nervous system to the periphery, ultimately resulting in contraction of skeletal muscles to trigger movement through the somatic nervous system, as well as contraction of the smooth muscles to trigger activity of the internal organs through the autonomic nervous system.

The nervous system is made up of two main types of cells: neurons and glial cells.

Neurons are the main cells of the nervous system. They’re composed of a cell body, which contains all the cell’s organelles, and when there’s a group of neuron cell bodies that are next to each other in the central nervous system, the whole thing is called a nucleus, while a group of neuron cell bodies that are located outside of the central nervous system is called a ganglion.

Neurons have nerve fibers that extend out from the neuron cell body- these are either dendrites that receive signals from other neurons, or axons that send signals along to other neurons.

Where two neurons come together is called a synapse, and that’s where one end of an axon releases neurotransmitters, further relaying the signal to the dendrites or directly to the cell body of the next neuron in the series.

Summary

The human nervous system functions as the control center for everything our body does. It controls voluntary and involuntary activities, including movements, breathing, thinking, digestion, etc. The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord; and the peripheral nervous system, which includes all the nerves that connect the central nervous system to the muscles and organs.

The peripheral nervous system is further divided into the somatic nervous system, which controls our skeletal muscles; and the autonomic nervous system, which is further subdivided into the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems, which control smooth muscles and glands.

Sources

  1. "Medical Physiology" Elsevier (2016)
  2. "Physiology" Elsevier (2017)
  3. "Human Anatomy & Physiology" Pearson (2018)
  4. "Principles of Anatomy and Physiology" Wiley (2014)
  5. "Topical Review: Basal Ganglia: Functional Anatomy and Physiology. Part 1" Journal of Child Neurology (1994)
  6. "The blood-brain barrier: Bottleneck in brain drug development" NeuroRX (2005)
  7. "Central Pattern Generator for Locomotion: Anatomical, Physiological, and Pathophysiological Considerations" Frontiers in Neurology (2013)
Elsevier

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