Autonomic Nervous System
The main control center for the autonomic nervous system located in the brain.
What is the Hypothalamus?
The part of the brain that coordinates voluntary movement and balance.
What is the Cerebellum?
The structures on the tongue that contain taste buds.
What are Papillae?
The formal name for Cranial Nerve VII.
What is the Facial Nerve?
The type of signal carried by the dorsal root of a spinal nerve.
What are Sensory signals?
The single neurotransmitter released by ALL autonomic preganglionic fibers.
What is Acetylcholine (ACh)?
The area in the frontal lobe responsible for speech production.
What is Broca's Area?
The sensory organ inside the cochlea that contains hair cells for hearing.
What is the Organ of Corti?
The cranial nerve responsible for smell vs. the cranial nerve responsible for vision.
What are CN I (Olfactory) and CN II (Optic)?
The total number of spinal nerve pairs and how many are thoracic.
What are 31 total pairs and 12 thoracic pairs?
This division of the ANS activates energy reserves, increases heart rate, and reduces digestion.
What is the Sympathetic Division?
The correct order of the meninges from superficial to deep.
What are Dura mater, Arachnoid mater, and Pia mater (DAP)?
The structures in the vestibular system responsible for sensing linear acceleration vs. angular (rotational) acceleration.
What are the Vestibule (linear) and Semicircular Ducts (angular)?
The three cranial nerves responsible for eye movement.
What are CN III (Oculomotor), CN IV (Trochlear), and CN VI (Abducens)?
The layer of connective tissue that wraps around a single nerve fascicle.
What is the Perineurium?
The two regions of the spinal cord where sympathetic nerve fibers originate.
What is the Thoracolumbar region (T1–L2)?
The region of the brainstem where cardiac and vasomotor centers are located and motor pathways cross over.
What is the Medulla Oblongata?
The sequence of cells light signals pass through in the retina.
What are Photoreceptors ->Bipolar cells ->Ganglion cells?
The structure where the left and right optic nerves cross.
What is the Optic Chiasm?
The key defining feature that separates a reflex from other nervous system responses.
What is being involuntary / rapid / automatic (not conscious)?
During a "fight or flight" sympathetic response, blood flow changes in these two ways for skeletal muscles and the digestive system.
What is increases to skeletal muscles and decreases to the digestive system?
This midbrain structure produces dopamine to control smooth movements; damage here causes Parkinson's disease.
What is the Substantia Nigra?
The anatomical difference between gray matter and white matter structures.
What is gray matter contains cell bodies and dendrites, while white matter contains myelinated axons?
Damaging Cranial Nerve XI (Accessory Nerve) affects this specific body movement.
What is shrugging the shoulders or turning the head?
How lower motor neuron lesions affect spinal reflexes.
What is hyporeflexia or areflexia (decreased or eliminated reflexes)?