Central Nervous System
The central nervous system (CNS) consists of what two components?
Brain and Spinal Cord
non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system
Neuroglia or glial cells
What are the left and right hemispheres of the brain typically responsible for?
Left: Language, Intellect, Logical thinking
Right: visual-spatial skills, emotion, artistic/musical skills
What is the function of the central nervous system?
Responsible for almost everything we do, think, and feel.
Oligodendrocyte
Explain the concept of Contralateral Control
Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body.
Name the four major regions of the brain
Cerebrum, Diencephalon, Brain Stem, Cerebellum.
Long extension or fiber that transmits electrical impulses away from the cell body to other cells
Axon
Explain the functions of the four lobes of the brain
Frontal: Voluntary movement, planning, decision-making, consciousness & personality
Parietal: Sensation, temperature, touch, pain, spatial perception
Temporal: Hearing, smell, memory
Occipital: Vision, vision association
Given that white matter contains more myelinated axons than gray matter, what is white matter optimized for in the central nervous system?
Transferring signals rapidly throughout the CNS.
Which cells are the main source of immune defense against invading microorganisms in the CNS?
Microglial cells
Prefrontal: intellect, cognition, reasoning, planning, personality
Broca's Area: Speech production
Wernicke's Area: Language comprehension
A patient suffers a traumatic injury that severs several myelinated axons in the white matter of their spinal cord. Explain how this might affect the speed and coordination of signal transmission in their central nervous system and suggest one potential treatment or strategy to promote recovery.
The injury would slow down or block signals in the central nervous system, affecting movement, sensation, or other body functions depending on where it happened. Recovery could involve physical therapy to help retrain the body or treatments like stem cells to repair the damaged myelin.
A person experiences delayed reflexes and muscle weakness due to damage that slows the transmission of nerve signals. This damage most likely affects which part of the neuron, and what structural component is involved?
The axon and the myelin sheath.
A bilingual patient who recently suffered a brain injury can still speak their first language fluently but struggles with grammar and syntax in their second language. Which region of the cerebrum is most likely affected, and why might this deficit be specific to the second language?
Broca's area. This region is critical for language production, and the second language often relies more heavily on explicit grammatical processing, which is mediated by Broca's area and can be more vulnerable to damage.