CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

The Central Nervous System (CNS) is composed of the brain and the spinal cord. The
CNS is surrounded by bone-skull and vertebrae. Fluid and Tissues also insulate the
brain and the spinal cord.
AREAS OF THR BRAIN
The Brain is composed of three parts: the cerebrum( “the conscious brain), cerebellum
and the medulla oblongata( these latter two are parts of the “unconscious brain”)
The Medulla Oblongata is closest to the spinal cord and is involved in the regulation of
the heartbeat, breathing, vasoconstriction (blood pressure), and reflex centers for
vomiting, coughing, sneezing, swallowing and even hiccups. The Hypothalamus
regulates homeostasis. It has regulatory areas of thirst, hunger, body temperature,
water balance and blood pressure and links the nervous system to the endocrine
system. The midbrain and pons are also a part of the unconscious brain. The thalamus
serves as a central relay point for incoming nervous passages.
The Cerebellum is the second largest part of the brain, after the cerebrum. It functions
for muscle coordination and maintains normal skin tone and even posture. The
cerebellum coordinates balance.
The conscious brain includes cerebral hemispheres, which are separated by the corpus
callosum. In reptiles, birds and mammals, the cerebrum coordinates sensory data and
motor functions. The cerebrum governs intelligence and reasoning, learning and
memory. While the cause of memory is not yet definitely known, studies on slugs
indicate learning is accompanied by a synapse decrease. Within the cell, learning
involves change in gene regulation and increased ability to secrete transmitters.
The Brain
During embryonic development, the brain first forms a tube, the anterior end which
develops and enlarges into 3 hollow swellings that form the brain, the posterior of which
develops into spinal cord . Some parts of the brain have changed little during vertebrate
evolutionary history.
PARTS OF THE BRAIN AS SEEN FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE BRAIN
Vertebrate evolutionary trends include:
1. Increase in Brain size relative to body size
2. Subdivisions and increasing specialization of the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain.
3. Growth is relative in size of the forebrain, especially the cerebrum, which is
associated with increasingly complex behavior in mammals.
THE BRAINSTEM AND THE MIDBRAIN
The brain stem is the smallest and from a evolutionary viewpoint, the oldest and most
primitive part of the brain. The brain stem is continuous with the spinal cord, and is
composed of the parts of the hindbrain and midbrain. The medulla oblongata and pons
control heart rate, constriction of blood vessels, digestion and respiration.
The Midbrain consists of connections between the hindbrain and forebrain, Mammals
use this part of the brain only for eye reflexes.

THE CEREBELLUM
The Cerebellum the third part of the hindbrain, but it is not considered part of the
brainstem. Functions of the cerebellum in clued fined motor coordination and body
movement, posture and balance. This region of the brain is enlarged in birds and
controls muscle action needed for flight.
THE FOREBRAIN
The Forebrain consists of the diencephalon and cerebrum. The Thalamus and
hypothalamus are parts of the diencephalon. The Thalamus acts as a switching center
for nerve messages. The hypothalamus is a major homeostatic center for having both
nervous and endocrine functions.

THE CEREBRUM
The Cerebrum, the largest part of the human brain, is divided into left and right
hemispheres connected to each other by the corpus callosum. The hemispheres are
covered by a thin layer of gray matter known as the cerebral cortex, amphibians and
reptiles have only rudiments in this area.

The cortex in each hemisphere of the cerebrum is between 1 and 4 mm thick. Folds
divide the cortex into four lobes: Occipital, Temporal, Parietal and Frontal. No region of
the brain functions alone, although major functions of various parts of the lobes have
been determined.

The occipital lobe (back of the head) receives and processes visual information. The
Temporal lobe receives auditory signals, processing language and the meaning of
words. The parietal lobe is associated with the sensory cortex and processes
information about touch, taste, pressure, pain, heat and cold. The Frontal Lobe
conducts 3 functions:
1. Motor Activity and Integration of muscle activity
2. Speech
3. Thought processes
The nervous system can be divided into two major regions: the central and peripheral
nervous systems. The central nervous system (CNS) is the brain and spinal cord, and
the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is everything else.

The brain is contained within the cranial cavity of the skull, and the spinal cord is
contained within the vertebral cavity of the vertebral column. It is a bit of an
oversimplification to say that the CNS is what is inside these two cavities and the
peripheral nervous system is outside of them, but that is one way to start to think about
it. In actuality, there are some elements of the peripheral nervous system that are within
the cranial or vertebral cavities.

The peripheral nervous system is so named because it is on the periphery—meaning

beyond the brain and spinal cord. Depending on different aspects of the nervous
system, the dividing line between central and peripheral is not necessarily universal.

Nervous tissue, present in both the CNS and PNS, contains two basic types of cells: neurons
and glial cells.

A glial cell is one of a variety of cells that provide a framework of tissue that supports the
neurons and their activities. The neuron is the more functionally important of the two, in terms of
the communicative function of the nervous system. To describe the functional divisions of the
nervous system, it is important to understand the structure of a neuron.

Neurons are cells and therefore have a soma, or cell body, but they also have extensions of the
cell; each extension is generally referred to as a process. There is one important process that
every neuron has called an axon, which is the fiber that connects a neuron with its target.
Another type of process that branches off from the soma is the dendrite.

Dendrites are responsible for receiving most of the input from other neurons. Looking at
nervous tissue, there are regions that predominantly contain cell bodies and regions that are
largely composed of just axons. These two regions within nervous system structures are often
referred to as gray matter (the regions with many cell bodies and dendrites) or white matter
(the regions with many axons). demonstrates the appearance of these regions in the brain and
spinal cord. The colors ascribed to these regions are what would be seen in “fresh,” or
unstained, nervous tissue.

Gray matter is not necessarily gray. It can be pinkish because of blood content, or even slightly
tan, depending on how long the tissue has been preserved.

But white matter is white because axons are insulated by a lipid-rich substance called myelin.

Lipids can appear as white (“fatty”) material, much like the fat on a raw piece of chicken or
beef. Actually, gray matter may have that color ascribed to it because next to the white matter, it
is just darker—hence, gray.
The distinction between gray matter and white matter is most often applied to central nervous
tissue, which has large regions that can be seen with the unaided eye. When looking at
peripheral structures, often a microscope is used and the tissue is stained with artificial colors.
That is not to say that central nervous tissue cannot be stained and viewed under a microscope,
but unstained tissue is most likely from the CNS

The cell bodies of neurons or axons can be located in discrete anatomical structures that need
to be named. Those names are specific to whether the structure is central or peripheral. A
localized collection of neuron cell bodies in the CNS is referred to as a nucleus. In the PNS, a
cluster of neuron cell bodies is referred to as a ganglion.

A bundle of axons, or fibers, found in the CNS is called a tract whereas the same thing in the
PNS would be called a nerve. There is an important point to make about these terms, which is
that they can both be used to refer to the same bundle of axons. When those axons are in the
PNS, the term is nerve, but if they are CNS, the term is tract.

Functional Divisions of the Nervous System

The nervous system can also be divided on the basis of its functions, but anatomical divisions
and functional divisions are different. The CNS and the PNS both contribute to the same
functions, but those functions can be attributed to different regions of the brain (such as the
cerebral cortex or the hypothalamus) or to different ganglia in the periphery. The problem with
trying to fit functional differences into anatomical divisions is that sometimes the same structure
can be part of several functions. For example, the optic nerve carries signals from the retina that
are either used for the conscious perception of visual stimuli, which takes place in the cerebral
cortex, or for the reflexive responses of smooth muscle tissue that are processed through the
hypothalamus.

There are two ways to consider how the nervous system is divided functionally. First, the basic
functions of the nervous system are sensation, integration, and response. Secondly, control of
the body can be somatic or autonomic—divisions that are largely defined by the structures that
are involved in the response. There is also a region of the peripheral nervous system that is
called the enteric nervous system that is responsible for a specific set of the functions within the
realm of autonomic control related to gastrointestinal functions.

Basic Functions

The nervous system is involved in receiving information about the environment around us
(sensation) and generating responses to that information (motor responses). The nervous
system can be divided into regions that are responsible for sensation (sensory functions) and
for the response (motor functions). But there is a third function that needs to be included.
Sensory input needs to be integrated with other sensations, as well as with memories,
emotional state, or learning (cognition). Some regions of the nervous system are
termed integration or association areas. The process of integration combines sensory
perceptions and higher cognitive functions such as memories, learning, and emotion to produce
a response.
Sensation. The first major function of the nervous system is sensation—receiving information
about the environment to gain input about what is happening outside the body (or, sometimes,
within the body). The sensory functions of the nervous system register the presence of a
change from homeostasis or a particular event in the environment, known as a stimulus. The
senses we think of most are the “big five”: taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing. The stimuli for
taste and smell are both chemical substances (molecules, compounds, ions, etc.), touch is
physical or mechanical stimuli that interact with the skin, sight is light stimuli, and hearing is the
perception of sound, which is a physical stimulus similar to some aspects of touch.

Response. The nervous system produces a response on the basis of the stimuli perceived by
sensory structures. An obvious response would be the movement of muscles, such as
withdrawing a hand from a hot stove, but there are broader uses of the term. The nervous
system can cause the contraction of all three types of muscle tissue.

Responses can be divided into those that are voluntary or conscious (contraction of skeletal
muscle) and those that are involuntary (contraction of smooth muscles, regulation of cardiac
muscle, activation of glands). Voluntary responses are governed by the somatic nervous system
and involuntary responses are governed by the autonomic nervous system, which are
discussed in the next section.

Integration. Stimuli that are received by sensory structures are communicated to the nervous
system where that information is processed. This is called integration. Stimuli are compared
with, or integrated with, other stimuli, memories of previous stimuli, or the state of a person at a
particular time. This leads to the specific response that will be generated. Seeing a baseball
pitched to a batter will not automatically cause the batter to swing. The trajectory of the ball and
its speed will need to be considered. Maybe the count is three balls and one strike, and the
batter wants to let this pitch go by in the hope of getting a walk to first base. Or maybe the
batter’s team is so far ahead, it would be fun to just swing away.

Controlling the Body

The nervous system can be divided into two parts mostly on the basis of a functional difference
in responses. The somatic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for conscious perception and
voluntary motor responses. Voluntary motor response means the contraction of skeletal muscle,
but those contractions are not always voluntary in the sense that you have to want to perform
them. Some somatic motor responses are reflexes, and often happen without a conscious
decision to perform them. unconscious) as a person learns motor skills (referred to as “habit
learning” or “procedural memory”).

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for involuntary control of the body,
usually for the sake of homeostasis (regulation of the internal environment). Sensory input for
autonomic functions can be from sensory structures tuned to external or internal environmental
stimuli. The motor output extends to smooth and cardiac muscle as well as glandular tissue.
The role of the autonomic system is to regulate the organ systems of the body, which usually
means to control homeostasis.
There is another division of the nervous system that describes functional responses.
The enteric nervous system (ENS) is responsible for controlling the smooth muscle and
glandular tissue in your digestive system. It is a large part of the PNS, and is not dependent on
the CNS.

Bell’s palsy, or idiopathic facial paralysis (IFP), accounts for approximately 60–80% of
lower motor neuronal facial palsies. In the vast majority of cases, it is self-limited,
nonprogressive, and spontaneously remitting with a very small minority of patients left
with residual neurologic dysfunction. It is the most common cause of unilateral paralysis
of the face. The occurrence may be sudden or delayed.

The facial (7th cranial) nerve has parasympathetic, motor, and sensory nuclei in the
pons, a part of the brain stem located in the posterior cranial fossa.

The fibers from the motor nucleus pass below the floor of the 4th ventricle and continue
around the nucleus of the abducens (6th cranial) nerve to combine with
parasympathetic and sensory fibers to form a common nerve trunk. The nerve trunk
exits the brain and continues its lateral course through the facial canal. Where the canal
makes an acute bend toward the middle ear cavity, the geniculate ganglion is located.
At the level of the geniculate ganglion, the greater superficial petrosal nerve arises and
supplies parasympathetic fibers to the lacrimal gland and mucous membrane of the
nose and mouth Distal to the geniculate ganglion, the facial nerve gives rise to 2
branches.

The first contains the motor nerve to the stapedius muscle, which serves to dampen the
oscillations of the ear ossicles. The second is the chorda tympani nerve, which contains
sensory fibers for taste from the anterior 2,4 of the tongue. The chorda tympani nerve
also joins with the lingual nerve and provides parasympathetic innervations to the
submandibular and sublingual glands. The facial nerve exits the temporal bone through
the stylomastoid foramen and subdivides into its terminal branches, which supply the
motor innervation to the muscles of facial expression.
THE URINARY SYSTEM

The mammalian urinary tract is a continuous hollow organ system whose

primary function is to collect, transport, store and expel urine regularly and
in a highly coordinated manner. The urinary tract thus ensures that
metabolic products and toxic waste produced in the kidneys are eliminated.

The process of constant urine flow in the upper urinary tract and
intermittent removal from the lower urinary tract also plays a crucial role in
cleaning up the urinary tract, ridding it of microbes that may already have
access to it.

When not eliminating urine, the urinary tract acts effectively as a closed
system, inaccessible to the microbes. Comprised of renal papillae, renal
pelvis, ureters, bladder, and urethra from proximal to distal, each part of the
urinary tract has distinct anatomical characteristics and essential functions.

Kidneys

The kidneys are a pair of bean-shaped organs found along the posterior

wall of the abdominal cavity. The left kidney is located slightly higher than
the right kidney because the right side of the liver is much larger than the
left side. The kidneys, unlike the other organs of the abdominal cavity, are
located posterior to the peritoneum and touch the muscles of the back. The
kidneys are surrounded by a layer of adipose that holds them in place and
protects them from physical damage. The kidneys filter metabolic wastes,
excess ions, and chemicals from the blood to form urine.

Ureters

The ureters are a pair of tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the
urinary bladder. The ureters are about 10 to 12 inches long and run on the
left and right sides of the body parallel to the vertebral column. Gravity and
peristalsis of smooth muscle tissue in the walls of the ureters move urine
toward the urinary bladder. The ends of the ureters extend slightly into the
urinary bladder and are sealed at the point of entry to the bladder by the
ureterovesical valves. These valves prevent urine from flowing back
towards the kidneys.
Urinary Bladder

The urinary bladder is a sac-like hollow organ used for the storage of urine.
The urinary bladder is located along the body’s midline at the inferior end of
the pelvis. Urine entering the urinary bladder from the ureters slowly fills the
hollow space of the bladder and stretches its elastic walls. The walls of the
bladder allow it to stretch to hold anywhere from 600 to 800 milliliters of
urine.

Urethra

The urethra is the tube through which urine passes from the bladder to the
exterior of the body. The female urethra is around 2 inches long and ends
inferior to the clitoris and superior to the vaginal opening. In males, the
urethra is around 8 to 10 inches long and ends at the tip of the penis. The
urethra is also an organ of the male reproductive system as it carries sperm
out of the body through the penis.

Urinary System Physiology

Ions

The kidney can control the excretion of potassium, sodium, calcium,

magnesium, phosphate, and chloride ions into urine. In cases where these
ions reach a higher than normal concentration, the kidneys can increase
their excretion out of the body to return them to a normal level. Conversely,
the kidneys can conserve these ions when they are present in lower than
normal levels by allowing the ions to be reabsorbed into the blood during
filtration.

pH

The kidneys monitor and regulate the levels of hydrogen ions (H+) and
bicarbonate ions in the blood to control blood pH. H+ ions are produced as
a natural byproduct of the metabolism of dietary proteins and accumulate in
the blood over time. The kidneys excrete excess H+ ions into urine for
elimination from the body. The kidneys also conserve bicarbonate ions,
which act as important pH buffers in the blood.
Osmolarity

The cells of the body need to grow in an isotonic environment in order to

maintain their fluid and electrolyte balance. The kidneys maintain the
body’s osmotic balance by controlling the amount of water that is filtered
out of the blood and excreted into urine. When a person consumes a large
amount of water, the kidneys reduce their reabsorption of water to allow the
excess water to be excreted in urine. This results in the production of dilute,
watery urine. In the case of the body being dehydrated, the kidneys
reabsorb as much water as possible back into the blood to produce highly
concentrated urine full of excreted ions and wastes. The changes in
excretion of water are controlled by antidiuretic hormone (ADH). ADH is
produced in the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary
gland to help the body retain water.

Blood Pressure

The kidneys monitor the body’s blood pressure to help maintain

homeostasis. When blood pressure is elevated, the kidneys can help to
reduce blood pressure by reducing the volume of blood in the body. The
kidneys are able to reduce blood volume by reducing the reabsorption of
water into the blood and producing watery, dilute urine. When blood
pressure becomes too low, the kidneys can produce the enzyme renin to
constrict blood vessels and produce concentrated urine, which allows more
water to remain in the blood.

Filtration

Inside each kidney are around a million tiny structures called nephrons.
The nephron is the functional unit of the kidney that filters blood to produce
urine. Arterioles in the kidneys deliver blood to a bundle of capillaries
surrounded by a capsule called a glomerulus. As blood flows through the
glomerulus, much of the blood’s plasma is pushed out of the capillaries and
into the capsule, leaving the blood cells and a small amount of plasma to
continue flowing through the capillaries. The liquid filtrate in the capsule
flows through a series of tubules lined with filtering cells and surrounded by
capillaries. The cells surrounding the tubules selectively absorb water and
substances from the filtrate in the tubule and return it to the blood in the
capillaries. At the same time, waste products present in the blood are
secreted into the filtrate. By the end of this process, the filtrate in the tubule
has become urine containing only water, waste products, and excess ions.
The blood exiting the capillaries has reabsorbed all of the nutrients along
with most of the water and ions that the body needs to function.