Why Study the Nervous System

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Why Study the Nervous System?

• We can determine if you are lying
• We can determine what factors may lead to
  addictive behaviors, including eating, sex, and
  drug/alcohol use
• We can learn how to re-wire sensory information
  for blind and deaf individuals

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Divisions of the Human Nervous System
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Divisions of the Human Nervous System
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Divisions of the Human Brain
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Key Structures in Forebrain

• Cerebral cortex
• Wrinkled covering less than one inch thick
• Four lobes
• frontal (green)
• parietal (blue)
• temporal (orange)
• occipital (purple)
• Left and right hemispheres

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Function of the Cortical Lobes

• Frontal
• Thinking, planning, personality, voluntary
  movement
• Parietal
• Sensation (touch)
• Temporal
• Hearing
• Occipital
• Vision

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Corpus Callosum

• Connecting fibers between cerebral hemispheres
  allows communication between them

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More Key Structures in Forebrain

• Limbic system
• Emotions, memory
• Includes amygdala and hippocampus
• Thalamus
• Sensory relay station
• Hypothalamus
• Drives hunger, thirst, sex, fight/flight
• Part of endocrine system (hormones)

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The Limbic System
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Thalamus and Hypothalamus
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Key Structures in Midbrain

• Substantia nigra
• motor movements (damaged in Parkinsons)
• VTA (ventral tegmental area)
• part of reward pathway

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The Hindbrain
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Key Structures in Hindbrain

• Medulla
• life-sustaining functions (heartbeat,
  respiration)
• Cerebellum
• coordination and balance fine movement
• Reticular formation
• sleep/wakefulness
• part of the pons

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Cellular Components of the Nervous System

• Glia structural support and insulation
• Neurons communication
• Dendrites receive information
• Soma cell body process information
• Axon transmit (send out) information
• Synapse gap between neurons

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Presynaptic and Postsynaptic Neurons
pre
post
pre
pre
post
post
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Communication Among Neurons

• 1st type of message - electrical
• Soma receives incoming electrical signals from
  dendrites and sums them up
• If the sum is large enough, soma sends electrical
  signal to the end of its axon
• At the end of the axon, the electrical signal
  causes chemicals to be sent across the synapse to
  the next neuron

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Communication Among Neurons

• 2nd type of message - chemical
• Neuron receives chemical signal from previous
  neuron on its receptors (on the dendrites)
• Chemicals are neurotransmitters
• At the dendrites, NTs cause generation of
  electrical signal to be sent to soma
• The cycle begins again

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