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    Nervous System: A Tutorial Study Guide
    Nervous System: A Tutorial Study Guide
    Nervous System: A Tutorial Study Guide
    Ebook286 pages4 hours

    Nervous System: A Tutorial Study Guide

    By Nicoladie Tam

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    About this ebook

    “Nervous System” is a part of the college-level Principles of Biology course series and the Neuropsychopharmacology course series textbooks.  It is a tutorial written in questions and answers format to describe the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord.

    It is a study guide with in-depth explanations.  Each section is a modular unit that is self-contained for easy reading. The principles and concepts are introduced systematically so students can learn and retain the materials intuitively.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNicoladie Tam
    Release dateJun 12, 2015
    ISBN9781301053025
    Nervous System: A Tutorial Study Guide
    Author

    Nicoladie Tam

    Dr. Nicoladie Tam, Ph.D., is a writer and a professor who does research in emotions and the brain.  She is an expert in neuropsychology, neurophysiology, brain imaging, computational neuroscience, and bioengineering.  She has a Ph.D. degree in Physiology, and three Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science, Physics and Astrophysics.  She has also been a suicide and crisis counselor, with extensive counseling experience in relationships and crisis management.  She is also a life coach, who does relationship coaching and executive coaching, inspires others in achieving the very best.

    Read more from Nicoladie Tam

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      Book preview

      Nervous System - Nicoladie Tam

      Preface

      Nervous System is a part of the college-level Principles of Biology course series and the Neuropsychopharmacology course series textbooks.  It is a tutorial written in questions and answers format to describe the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord.

      It is a study guide with in-depth explanations.  Each section is a modular unit that is self-contained for easy reading. The principles and concepts are introduced systematically so students can learn and retain the materials intuitively.

      *~*~*~*~*

      Textbooks by Nicoladie Tam, Ph.D., in the Principles of Biology course series:

      Principles of Biology textbook in one volume:

      Principles of Biology: Animal Systems

      ISBN 9781301691739

      Individual chapters of the Principles of Biology textbook series:

      Biological System

      ISBN 9781301003891

      Scientific Methods

      ISBN 9781301898688

      Biological Principles

      ISBN 9781310803666

      Origin of Species

      ISBN 9781301352456

      Nervous System

      ISBN 9781301053025

      Neuron

      ISBN 9781301119646

      Action Potential

      ISBN 9781301115372

      Synapse

      ISBN 9781301374120

      Reflex

      ISBN 9781301991266

      Neurotransmitter

      ISBN 9781301268610

      Sensory System

      ISBN 9781301660070

      Motor System

      ISBN 9781301500895

      Endocrine System

      ISBN 9781301642939

      Reproductive System

      ISBN 9781301424078

      Circulatory System

      ISBN 9781301262410

      Respiratory System

      ISBN 9781301805389

      Immune System

      ISBN 9781301452309

      Renal System

      ISBN 9781301927111

      Digestive System

      ISBN 9781301317097

      Textbooks by Nicoladie Tam, Ph.D., in the Neuropsychopharmacology course series:

      Neuropsychopharmacology textbook in one volume:

      Neuropsychopharmacology

      ISBN 9781311596178

      Individual chapters of Neuropsychopharmacology textbook series:

      Neuropsychopharmacology: An Introduction

      ISBN 9781301482733

      Scientific Methods

      ISBN 9781301898688

      Mind-Brain Connection

      ISBN 9781301903405

      Pharmacology: In Introduction

      ISBN 9781301843534

      Pharmacokinetics

      ISBN 9781301010776

      Dose-Response Curve

      ISBN 9781301541812

      Learning Mechanisms

      ISBN 9781301729531

      Cognitive Learning

      ISBN 9781301966455

      Experimental Methods in Neuropsychopharmacology

      ISBN 9781301966455

      Brain Imaging Techniques

      ISBN 9781311863638

      Nervous System

      ISBN 9781301053025

      Neuron

      ISBN 9781301119646

      Action Potential

      ISBN 9781301115372

      Synapse

      ISBN 9781301374120

      Reflex

      ISBN 9781301991266

      Neurotransmitter

      ISBN 9781301268610

      Neurotransmitter Pathways

      ISBN 9781301696666

      Cytoplasmic Release of Neurotransmitters

      ISBN 9781311978615

      Executive Functions

      ISBN 9781301125968

      ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

      ISBN 9781301318445

      Schizophrenia

      ISBN 9781301972692

      Affective Disorders: Depression, Mania and Bipolar Disorder

      ISBN 9781311988416

      Anxiety Disorders

      ISBN 9781311060419

      *~*~*~*~*

      Table of Contents

      Cover Page

      Preface

      Nervous System

      Evolution of the Nervous System

      Organization of the Nervous System

      Anatomy of Spinal Cord.

      Functions of Spinal Cord

      Brainstem

      Cerebellum

      Hypothalamus

      Pituitary

      Thalamus

      Neocortex

      Cortical Features

      Somatosensory Cortex

      Motor Cortex

      Visual Cortex

      Auditory Cortex

      Frontal Cortex

      Association Cortex

      Topographical Representation of the Body

      Language Processing

      Olfactory Bulb

      Limbic System

      Amygdala

      Hippocampus

      Basal Ganglia

      Autonomic Nervous System

      Nervous System: Review

      About the Author

      Other Books Published by the Author

      *~*~*~*~*

      1. 

      Nervous System

      Objectives

      Understand the structure and function of the nervous system

      Concepts to Learn

      Organization of the nervous system

      Specialization of the nervous system

      Evolution of the nervous system

      Controls and regulations of the central nervous system

      Roles of the peripheral nervous system

      Functions of the spinal cord

      Functions of the brainstem

      Functions of the reticular formation

      Functions of the cerebellum

      Functions of the hypothalamus

      Functions of the pituitary

      Functions of the thalamus

      Functions of the somatosensory cortex

      Functions of the motor cortex

      Functions of the visual cortex

      Functions of the auditory cortex

      Functions of the association cortex

      Functions of the frontal cortex

      Functions of the Wernicke’s area

      Functions of the Broca’s area

      Functions of the limbic system

      Functions of the hippocampus

      Functions of the amygdala

      Functions of the basal ganglia

      Functions of the olfactory bulb

      Functions of the corpus callosum

      Functions of the autonomic nervous system

      Functions of the sympathetic nervous system

      Functions of the parasympathetic nervous system

      The nervous system is specialized in processing information and controlling the body and its environment.  It is divided into the central nervous system (CNS) (which contains the brain and spinal cord), and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) (which contains the sensory and motor nerves).  The CNS can also be subdivided into the voluntary nervous system (which has conscious control over its function) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) (which has autonomous reflex control rather than conscious control over its function).  The ANS is subdivided into the sympathetic branch (which stimulates the brain and body under stress), and the parasympathetic branch (which returns the brain and body back to its relaxation state).

      The spinal cord is evolved from the nerve cord, which is involved in controlling and regulating reflexes for sensory and motor functions.  It also integrates basic sensory information to produce simple low-level motor output for coordination.  The brainstem is an extension of the spinal cord, which is involved in regulating similar reflexes of the head.  It also regulates other vital functions, such as heart rate and respiration rate, and sleep-wake state.  The reticular formation is involved in regulating the conscious state of sleep, dream and wakeful states.  It also sends the signals to the cerebrum to activate the rest of the brain.  Without the reticular activation system, the brain would be in a coma.

      The hypothalamus controls the pituitary.  They both regulate the homeostatic state of both the internal and external conditions of the animal.  Hypothalamus is involved in providing the behavioral drive for the animal to achieve homeostasis.  The pituitary regulates the body by releasing hormones.  The hypothalamus and pituitary form feedback loops to regulate the hormonal releases.

      The cerebellum is involved in motor learning and complex motor coordination of the limbs.  The thalamus acts as the gateway for sensory inputs before the sensory signals enters the cerebral cortex.  It is involved in interpreting the emotional aspects of the sensation.  The limbic system is involved in regulating emotion and memory functions.  The hippocampus of the limbic system is involved in forming associative learning and associative memory.  The amygdala is involved in regulating emotions, particularly conditioned fear.  The basal ganglia is involved in motor initiation and motor termination.

      The somatosensory cortex is involved in processing tactile and temperature perception of the body surface.  The motor cortex is involved in producing voluntary movements by sending the motor command signals to the periphery.  The visual cortex is involved in processing visual perception.  The auditory cortex is involved in processing hearing perception.  The association cortex is involved in integrating and associating different senses together coherently.  The frontal cortex is involved in processing higher-level cognition, such as logical reasoning, abstract thinking, decision-making, and other intellectual activities.

      Summary

      The nervous system is a specialized organ involved in processing information from both the internal and external environments.  It controls and regulates each part of the body, and provides the animal with the ability to respond to the environment appropriately for successful survival.  Each part of the brain is involved in different aspects of the control and regulation.  Each of these subdivisions of the brain cooperates together to form the coherent behavior and respond to the environment appropriately for survival.

      *~*~*~*~*

      1.1.

      Evolution of the Nervous System

      Objectives

      Understand how the nervous system evolved progressively

      Concepts to Learn

      Evolutionary progression of the nervous system

      Subdivision of the nervous system

      Central nervous system

      Peripheral nervous system

      Nerve cord

      Spinal cord

      Brainstem

      Rhombencephalon

      Myelencephalon

      Metencephalon

      Mesencephalon

      Prosencephalon

      Diencephalon

      Telencephalon

      The nervous system is evolved as the central nervous system to specialize in processing sensory and motor information, and integrating the information so that the animal can control and regulate both the internal and external environments.  Initially in evolution, the nervous system is developed as the nerve cord that regulates motor and sensory control so it can interact with the environment with some basic reflexes.  As the animal becomes more complex, the nervous system is also specialized in controlling some of its vital functions, such as regulating the heart and lungs, which are essential for survival.  These functions are regulated by the brainstem, which is an extension and enlargement of the spinal cord. The cerebellum is an extension from the brainstem that is specialized in skilled motor coordination, such as balancing and postural control, which are essential functions for movement in animals.  These brain structures correspond to the rhombencephalon (hindbrain), which is the oldest part of the brain in evolutionary terms.

      The mesencephalon (midbrain) is evolved to regulate the motivation and initiation of movement, which is important as the animal evolves.  The tectum evolved as an enlargement in the midbrain, which is specialized in vision in lower animals, and eventually evolved into the visual area of the cerebrum as vision becomes more important than olfaction (smell).

      The diencephalon (which includes the thalamus, hypothalamus and pituitary) is a newer addition to the brain in evolution, yet these structures are also very ancient and had not changed for millions of years because they are very vital to the survival of the animal.  Its function involves regulating the drive of an animal, such as hunger drive, thirst drive, temperature drive and sex drive by the hypothalamus.  Sometimes, we call this the primitive part of the brain because it regulates some very basic vital functions that are almost universal to all animals, and these functions are very similar from lower to higher animals.  The thalamus also evolved to process the contextual feel of the sensation so that the animal can evaluate the senses better with respect to their survival within the environment.  The thalamus is also involved in regulating the motor control to, which serves as the gateway for sensory input and motor output.

      The prosencephalon (forebrain) includes the cerebral cortex is the newest part of the brain in evolution.  It is also the largest part in higher animals, which is involved in processing higher cognitive function (such as logical reasoning, decision-making and abstract thinking) and perception (which is interpreting the contextual meaning and significance of the sensory signal).

      Summary

      The nervous system is specialized in processing sensory and motor information so that the animal can integrate and respond to the environment.  The evolution of nervous system progresses from regulating simple reflexes to vital functions for maintaining homeostasis, and eventually into conscious cognition and perceptual interpretation of the environment in relation to the animal.

      The brain was evolved from the spinal cord to the brainstem and eventually the cerebrum.  The evolutionary development also corresponds to the developmental stages of the brain in embryonic development.  It progresses from the rhombencephalon to the mesencephalon and then to the diencephalon and eventually to the prosencephalon.

      Q&A

      What are the functions evolved to perform by the nervous system?

      It is evolved to coordinate and regulate different parts of the animals, and process these signals for further uses such as interacting with the external environment.

      As an organism increases in size (i.e., increases in the number of cells from unicellular to multicellular organism) communication and coordination between various parts of the organism requires a specialized system to handle it.  Nerve cells and the nervous system are evolved to accomplish these coordinating activities as well as sensing the environment so that it can respond to it appropriately.

      What does the nervous system control and regulate?

      The nervous system controls and regulates both the internal and external environment.

      It is important to know that the nervous system controls and regulate both the internal and external environments in very similar ways, even though most of the time we are conscious of how the brain controls the external environment and less aware of how it controls what is inside our body.  The mechanisms for such control and regulation are very similar independent of whether the control is external or internal.  The nervous system relies on the same kind of sensory information for regulation.

      What are the functions of nerve cells?

      Neurons are evolved to process signals and to transmit signals to other neurons or cells.  The processing response time is usually very fast compared to other cellular responses.

      Neurons are specialized cells to process both chemical and electrical signals, and send the results of those processing to other neurons or cells.  The processing that neurons do include many functions, such as sensing information, integrating information, making decisions, processing emotional information, regulating homeostatic conditions, generating motor control, etc.

      The time it takes to process the information is usually very fast, in the order of a fraction of a second to a few seconds.  It is fast compared to the hours or days it takes for gene expression, for instance.

      What is one of the elementary nervous systems found in animals?

      The nerve cord is first evolved to coordination the movement of an animal, such as coordination the movement from front to back; left and right; moving forward or backward.

      The nerve cord basically contains a collection of neurons with various neural circuitries for sensing and coordinating movements.  It is a rudimentary spinal cord that is primarily involved in coordinating movements of different parts of an animal and sensing different parts of the animal.

      As the number of cells increases in animals, communication among cells using diffusion of chemical signal is either too slow or inefficient.  Thus, the nervous system is evolved to increase the speed of communication as well as increasing the efficiency of the processing of these signals.  Electrical signal is used rather than chemical signal since processing and transmission of electrical signal is much faster than chemical signal.

      What did the nerve cord evolved into from lower to higher animals?

      The nerve cord evolved into the spinal cord.

      The nerve cord in lower animals evolved into the spinal cord in higher animals.  They perform similar functions of coordinating movements and integrating senses.

      What are the basic functions of spinal cord in higher animals?

      It is primarily involved in coordinating movements of different limbs (or different parts of the body), by sensing from different part of the body.  The functions are similar to the nerve cord in lower animals.

      The spinal cord is used to process and integrate a lot of sensory and motor information, in particular, those information are used in the reflex actions.  The spinal cord is also involved in extracting information from the sensory signals.  Thus, it pre-processes the signals before they reach the brain so that the sensation can be abstracted within the context of the environment.  For instance, indentation of the skin is eventually interpreted as touch by the brain later.

      Similar the spinal cord is also involved in coordinating motor information before they reach the muscles or glands.  Thus, the spinal cord is more than just a relay for the brain (higher center).  It is involved in many basic functions, such as reflexes (which is an automatic response given a specific sensory stimulus).

      How does the brain evolved?

      The brain is basically an enlargement of the spinal cord, with an increased number of neurons and circuitry for processing, extracting and interpreting sensory and motor information.

      The brain is really an extension of the spinal cord, and specializes its function in integrating more complex information than the spinal cord, thus able to respond more appropriately depending on the environmental condition than the automatic response in spinal cord.

      In dinosaurs, the lumbar (lumbar = hip) enlargement of the spinal cord is so large that it can be considered as the second brain for them.  That is because dinosaurs are so big that it takes too long for signals to travel to the brain; thus, it necessitates local processing in the spinal level.  The enlargement is the result of the increased number of neurons needed for such processing.

      Thus, the brain is not necessarily be located in the head, it can be located anywhere else.  It just happened that the brain is evolved to locate in the head as a matter of convenience.

      What is the central nervous system?

      It contains the brain and spinal cord.

      The brain is essentially an extension and enlargement of the spinal cord.  The brain and spinal cord are continuous with each other as one structure.  Together, it is called the central nervous system (CNS) because it is involved in centralized control of the body.  The peripheral nervous system is essentially the nerves outside of the CNS.

      What is the peripheral nervous system?

      It is the sensory and motor nerves connecting to the central nervous system.

      The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is also continuous with the CNS.  It is essentially the nerves that connect to the CNS.  It contains both sensory and motor nerves, which serves as the input and output of the CNS.

      What are the different ways to understand the evolution of the nervous system?

      The evolution of the nervous system can be understood in many different ways based on the anatomical structure, physiological function, chemical signals, genetic traits and many other characteristics.

      For instance, we can see how the nervous system evolved in different animals by comparing the brain structure, the organization of the brain, the physiological functions that the brain processes, the neurotransmitters it uses, and the genetic characteristics of the cells.  When such characteristics are compared, the

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