Lecture 6: Nervous System I

(slide above)

The 2 principle divisions we want to talk about are the CNS (brain
and spinal cord) and the PNs (composed of all the nerves).
There are 2 broad categories of nerves:
Spinal nerves
Cranial nerves

We are going to look at these structures over the course of the 2

structures starting today with the brain and the spinal cord.
 (slide below)

Just to give you some orientation you will hear these terms
throughout the lectures as we talk about the organization of the
nervous system.

Brain and spinal cord are largely horizontal in quadrupeds so a

lot of the terminology refers to that
So things to do with dorsal and ventral are referring to
structures that are towards the back of the beast
compared to structures that are towards the belly
Rostral and caudal we usually use to describe the
longitudinal axis of the nervous system
Rostral means towards the beak so towards the
nose
Caudal towards the cord which is the spinal cord
So when were talking about rostral and caudal
structures, we are talking about things along that
longitudinal axis

But in humans, we are upright creatures and our nervous system

sits more in the vertical plane although it does have a tilt to it (an
anterior bend to it).
Dorsal is really superior when were talking about the brain
Ventral is inferior
When were talking about the spinal cord, dorsal is posterior
towards the back and ventral is anterior

When you hear these terms dorsal and ventral, just be aware that
theyre terms that come from quadrupeds but they do have
corresponding meaning in humans depending on whether youre
talking about the brain or spinal cord
TLDR;
Rostral in humans is towards the beak/the nose
Caudal is towards the cord but you can see this curve, this anterior
inflection in the nervous system that you dont get in the
quadrupeds

(slide below)

Shown again here on this slide (left hand side diagram)

On the right hand side, we are looking at different ways we
can slice through the nervous system
If you make a cut through the brain in the longitudinal
axis, going from the top to the bottom, then we call that
a sagittal section
So the longitudinal axis in the perpendicular plane
to the nervous system is sagittal
If we go across the longitudinal axis in a plane that is
parallel to a nervous system, that is a horizontal slice
(dont often see those)
More common one is to go across the short axis of the
brain, cutting it into a front bit and a back bit thats a
coronal section

(slide below)
 CNS is brain and spinal cord
PNS is all of these nerves that connect the CNS to the
effectors of the body
Things like our muscles and our glands and heart and
gut and all the sorts of things that need neuronal control
so that the peripheral nerves are the things that connect
the CNS to those effectors

(slide below)

This is a brain and you can see

some distinguishing features about
the brain
Lots of folds
Actual folds of tissues are called GYRI
Grooves between the folds are called SULCI
Brain has this typical arrangement where it increases
the surface area dramatically to pack neurons into the
structure but you can also see there are other structures
associated with the brain
You can see the CEREBELLUM
 Has a similar arrangement but we dont call them
gyri, we call them folio because they look like
layers of leaves still has that folding to it
Can see the brainstem important for autonomic functions
Normally attached to BRAIN STEM is the SPINAL CORD (but its
cut off)
All of this is wrapped up in some protective layers, the tissue
that wraps up the brain and spinal cord are called MENINGES
and there are 3 layers to the MENINGES that coat the brain
The outermost layer looks like the image above. It
is a very thick and tough connective tissue coating
called the DURA MATER

(slide below) This shows the other 2 layers in schematic form

Dura Mater is the blue thick thing on the top

Sitting beneath that is a layer called the arachnoid because it
looks like a spiderweb
Third layer is on the brain tissue itself known as the pia
mater (pia means delicate so its a very thin delicate layer)
^ So those are the 3 layers of meningies, they are all around
the brain and the spinal cord and they are important and
provide different functions
One of the most important functions for the meningies is
that this is where the CSF circulates (stuff that bathes
the CNS)
CSF flows within the subarachnoid space between
the arachnoid and the pia mater thats where it
flows, its not produced there (we will look at where
CSF is produced in a moment but one of the roles
of the meningies is to provide a cushioning
 support around the brain, CSF helps to do that by
flowing the subarachnoid space)

(slide below)

So if youre looking from your scalp down, then the

organization is skin bone (which is covered by a
periosteum) sitting underneath that is the dura mater (2
components: periosteal layer which is the layer that is
attached to the bone and a meningeal layer which is the
underneath side spiderweb like arachnoid sitting
underneath pia mater directly on the brain surface itself
(you cant take the pia mater off, its tightly tethered to the
brain)
You can see here that some of the meninges actually take a
fold that separates the 2 cerebral hemispheres the
meninges sit between these 2 hemisphere layers a very
distinctive fold of this called a falx cerebri (fold of dura
mater that positions down between the two
hemispheres of the brain EXAM OR MST??)
Were going to talk about these structures pretty briefly in a
couple of slide
You can see that components of the arachnoid actually
protrude into this large structure at the top of the Falx
cerebri (this is a venous sinus it is a vascular
structure and blood flows through there)
You can see that part of the arachnoid has these
little arachnoid villi that poke into that vascular
sinus and the reason for that is that Ive
mentioned the CSF flows through this
subarachnoid space where in fact this is the spot
 that that CSF gets reabsorbed back into the
vasculature so these arachnoid villi are very
important for reabsorbtion of CSF

These are some of the key structures associated with the meningeal
layers some structures that will be good for us to remember

(slide below)

CSF is a filtrate from blood produced from our blood

Produced within the ventricular system of the brain so inside
the cerebrum are several spaces called ventricles theres 2
in each of the hemispheres called lateral ventricles and there
are 2, one in each hemisphere
They are attached to a 3rd ventricle only one of
those and its a medial structure
That is attached to a 4th ventricle, again there is
only one of those and its a medial structure
** Within these ventricles, theres a very specialized vasculature
called the choroid plexus (blood vessels) and as blood flows into the
choroid plexus, it gets filtered, some of that filtrate leaves the
vasculature, enters the ventricular system as CSF, CSF then flows
out of the ventricular system around the subarachnoid space to
bathe the brain to protect it and its reabsorbed through those
arachnoid villi that we saw in the previous slide. So the ventricular
system through the choroid plexus makes CSF, the subarachnoid
space carries it and its reabsorbed back into the vasculature
eventually via those arachnoid villi.
(slide below)

This cartoon shows schematically a very large

lateral ventricle one in each hemisphere
Theres a 3rd and 4th ventricle down near the brainstem
but theyre all important for making the CSF which then
flows around the brain to help to bathe it

Know how CSF is transported and how its reabsorbed*

(slide below)
 Here (top) you can see these arachnoid granulations and
arachnoid villi poking up into that dural sinus, that big
vascular sinus allowing for the reabsorption of CSF
CSF production is continuous and ongoing and always
happening
Reabsorption is always happening at the same rate and
so theres always a constant amount of CSF around our
nervous system
But what happens if theres an imbalance? What
happens if reabsorption doesnt occur? Or theres too
much production?
CSF starts to build up around the brain

And you end

up with a condition
thats called HYDROCEPHALUS
Hydro = water, Cephalus = brain
Its because usually theres poor
reabsorption of CSF, perhaps theres
an injury, perhaps theres a
developmental problem that
leads to reabsorption issues
But because the production of
CSF is constant, if its not drained
away it builds up and you often
see pictures of infants with
hydrocephalus with very big
skulls
because
before the
bones are properly fused, the skull
then expand and that can cause
appearance of very large head
The way in which this is fixed, if its a
chronic problem in fact theres an canular
(??) thats put it into the lateral ventricles with a line
that usually goes down into the peritoneal cavity to do
the same job that those arachnoid villi would normally
do
So here, some of the CSF is drained through this
canular, put into the peritoneal space where its
picked up again by the vasculature and that helps
control the problem
**Inappropriate reabsorption of CSF is a really significant issue
 Here is a lateral view of the brain
We can clearly see this gyri, sulci, the folds and the
grooves
You can see the shiny substance on the brain which is
the meningeal layers
You can also see the brain has some very distinct
structure to it
Weve talked about cerebellum
Weve talked about brainstem
When we look at the brain, it has some defining
features that are summarized in this cartoon

(slide below)

The very basic defining

feature of he cerebrum
are the lobes
Several lobes to the brain: frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal
These lobes are defined by very distinct landmarks
 Division between frontal lobe and parietal lobe is this
sulcus that runs the entire length of the cerebrum
(CENTRAL SULCUS DEFINING MARK THAT SEPARATES
THE FRONTAL LOBE FROM THE PARIETAL LOBE)
Another sulcus that runs all the way around the back of
the brain that separates the occipital lobe from the
parietal lobe (PARIETOOCCIPITAL SULCUS because it
separates those 2 lobes)
Very deep fischer (because its deeper than a sulcus)
called the lateral fischer that separates the temporal
lobe from the rest of the brain
Those lobes are defined by those anatomical landmarks, they also
have very different functional roles that we wont go into a great
deal of detail but well see in a moment.

Those sulci and the fischer are the defining landmarks you
will need to remember (MST OR EXAM!!)

(slide below)

What were looking at on the surface of the brain is the cerebral

cortex cortex being the outermost layer and it had some very
fundamental organizational structure to it

We often talk about primary cortixes, secondary cortixes and

tertiary cortices
Primary cortices are shown here in this slide and the things
like the primary somatosensory cortex, primary motor cortex,
primary gustatory cortex, primary auditory cortex, primary
visual cortex these are the primary areas very important for
those basic functions you can see there
 You can see here that the central sulcus is separating the
frontal lobe from the parietal lobe
It separates these 2 very large gyri the primary motor
cortex (usually called the precentral gyrus because its in
front of the central sulcus and the primary sensory
cortex sits behind the central sulcus so its often called
the postcentral gyrus)
Those 2 big gyri, again, you can see those on the
specimens of brains when you get into the lab
Those are 2 large tissue structures that help
define those 2 lobes of the brain
Lateral fissue is a little bit more difficult to pick out but you
can find them on any specimen
(third image) You can see here another sulcus that runs within
the substance of the occipital lobe called the calcerine sulcus
that sulcus is important because thats the location of
where the primary visual cortex is located
If you can find that structure on a specimen, you know
that the gyri either (??) of that are the primary visual
cortex
(slide below)

Those primary cortical areas usually sit next to secondary cortical

areas which usually sit next to tertiary cortical areas.

We are going to focus on the arrangement of the motor cortex (red)

You can see the central sulcus, the big gyrus in front of the
central sulcus is the primary motor cortex
 Sitting next to that in the frontal lobe you can see is the
premotor cortex
This is one of the secondary cortical areas so youve got
the secondary motor area sitting next to the primary
motor area
For example what do these things do? Primary
motor area houses the neurons that project out to
take the information towards our muscles
Whereas the premotor cortex actually stores some
of the motor programs that we learn over our
lifetime
so theres a motor map within the premotor
cortex of all these movements weve learned,
theyre stored there and sent to the primary motor
cortex which sends it out to the muscle to do it
these 2 are in close proximity to allow for that
important communication
Sitting at the front here, we often refer to the prefrontal cortex
as containing the tertiary motor area
WHY? This is where the decision is made to undertake a
movement you make the decision in the prefrontal
cortex, you send it to the premotor cortex which
encodes the pattern and that pattern is sent to the
primary motor cortex which then heads out to the
muscles

So this is the basic arrangement of the nervous system. You will find
that there are primary cortices sitting next to secondary cortices
that have these very important functional roles.
You can see the secondary somatosensory area sitting next to
the primary somatosensory area
** Largely the CNS is organised in that fashion

(slide below)
This is the sagittal section, along the longitudinal axis perpendicular
to the brain, so now weve cut the brain in half down its heispheres,
weve opened it up and we can see some substance within the CNS,
what can we see there? The cartoon highlights some of the key
features:

You can still see the lobes of the brain.

You can see the frontal lobe is blue, pariaetal lobe, can see the
occipital lobe
You can probably make out the white structure in the middle
immediately that looks very different to the gyri and sulci we
talked about before
This white structure is a large bundle of axons called the
CORPUS CALLOSUM
 CONTAINS AXONS THAT CONNECT THE 2
HEMISPHERES TOGETHER
A lot of thesefibres are called commissural fibres
going from one hemispheres and back
It sits directly beneath this big fold of brain tissue,
this big gyrus called the cingulate gyrus
contains a lot of cells that contribute to the limbic
brain
And below it you will find the diencephalon
(contains the thalamus important for sensation
etc)
Directly below that again moving inferiorly is
where the brain stem starts
Brainstem has 3 components: midbrain, pons, medulla (in that
order)
You can also see the pituitary gland associated with the
diencephalon
** These are all the structures you see on the sagittal section of the
brain **

(slide below)

HERE IS THE BRAINSTEM HIGHLIGHTED IN MORE DETAIL

The big bulbus looking structure pons means bridge

You can see here the pons forms very strong
connections with other parts of the CNS
Here you can see these tissue structures connecting the
cerebellum to the pons (called cerebedunkles??)
these are white matter tract axons that connect the
pons to the cerebellum bridging those 2 tissues together
so information can flow between them
(slide below)

Now this is a coronal section through the brain so across the brain,
across the short axis.
You can quite clearly see the 2 hemispheres
Remember that fold of dura mater the flax cerebri
that would normally sit there in this groove there at the
top between the two hemispehres
You can see the corpus callosum (that big bundle of axons
connecting the 2 hemispehres together)
 And below the corpus callosum (the holes), you can see the
lateral ventricles where CSF is produced
So there are 2 lateral ventricles one in each of the
hemispheres, CSF is produced there, it flows to the third
ventricle which you can see is a midline structure down
the 4th ventricle which is kind of hidden here by the pons
but that is the ventricular system we have been talking
about
Quite clearly you can see in this particular section that there
appears to be 2 types of tissues:
Grey matter: where all the cell bodies of neurons are
located
There are a few deep patches of cell matter you
can see around the brain, these form the basal
nuclei/basal ganglia but largely a lot of the cell
bodies are located in the cortical grey matter you
can see on the surface
White matter: all the axons of those neurons (white
because of myelin)
Myelin is a fatty substance that encases axon and wraps
around it and improves the conduction of action
potentials but has a whitish appearance to it compared
to the cell bodies

This organization of grey and white matter continues all the way
through into the spinal cord, but it changes a little bit. So whereas in
the brain, in the cerebrum, the grey matter is on the outside of brain
largely, within the spinal cord, all the cell bodies are on the interior
and the white matter wraps around it (all the axons are around the
outside of the cord) so you get this butterfly lookin thing.

If you look really carefully in the butterfly, you will see a dot in
the middle. This is the central canal of the spinal cord CSF
thats made up in the ventricular system also bathes the
spinal cord and it does so by first passing all the way down the
centre of the cord through the central canal all the way to the
bottom of the spinal cord and then it wraps back up through
the subarachnoid space, drains back out and bathes from the
bottom up
Central canal carries the CSF down to the base of the
cord
(slide below)

Myelin is a lipid a fat-like substance that surrounds there for

insulation
2 different types of cells make myelin: within the CNS, the cell
that makes it is oligodendrocyte and in the PNS, the Schwann
cell makes the myelin that wraps about peripheral axons

(slide below)

This is what a myelinated axon looks like at high magnification.

Mhyelin is all these layers you see wrapping around (not just 1
layer of myelin, myelin ensheathes the axon with these many
layers)
(slide below)

Looking at the spinal cord

Spinal column has variety of different segments to it.

There is cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal
component of the spinal cord
Named after the bones they are associated with
You can see from the diagram that there are nerves
arising from those areas (they are again named the
same cervical nerves, thoracic nerves etc)

(slide below)
 The spinal cord is also wrapped up in those
meningeal layers.
Theres a dura mater, arachnoid mater (contains the CSF just
like it does around the brain), pia mater layer, weve already
seen the central canal which is where the CSF passes through
Organisation of meningeal layers is not different in the
spinal cord

(slide below)

The spinal cord is not uniform along its length. There are some
changes in the shape of it, in particular in the cervical and the
lumbar parts of the cord it gets quite FAT, quite enlarged cervical
lumbar enlargement.
 This is related to the number of cells that are located in those
regions and what those cells are doing
Cells up here in the cervical part of the cord and cells in
the lumbar part of the cord are heading off to supply
things like our hands, our arms and our legs and our
toes in which there are many many muscles which there
are many many cells that are required to operate those
muscles
Those parts of the cord appear bigger because
theres more neural tissue compared to the
thoracic part of the cord which is supplying our
trunk muscle which dont require the same
amount of innervation less cells appears
thinner

(slide below)

Cervical and lumbar enlargmenets you can see visually justby

looking at a spinal cord. If you take sections through the spinal cord
and look at the organization of the tissue, it reflects that.
 You can see the cervical enlargement those sections are
much bigger than sections of tissues you get through the
thoracic aprt of the cord
You can also see the shape of the grey matter changes
quite dramatically depending on how many neurons that
those levels of spinal cord are required to innervate the
muscles and the other structures
So again, our limbs require many more cells to be
operated than other parts of our anatomy

(slide below)

When you get towards the caudal end of the cord, theres some
interesting structures.
The spinal cord itself ends in around about the first or second
lumbar vertebra. So the actual spinal cord ends in this cone-
like structure (seen right diagram) called a conus medullaris
but its the very tie of the spinal cord
 Beyond that, there are all these nerve fibres that
continue down and exit at various levels
Fibres look a little bit like a horses tail

(SLIDE BELOW)

For that
reason it is called the cauda equine.
If you look very carefully, there is actually a little extension of
pia mater, it continues all the way down to attach to the
coccygeal (??) bones its called the fallum terminalae the
terminal filament because it is there to anchor the spinal cord
to the bones around it
So the spinal cord itself ends quite high, then you have this
bundle of nerves
** Lumbar puncture is where you go in and can actually collect
CSF from people. They are usually done around this area of the
spinal cord where theres very little chance of causing damage to
the cord itself because the cord has finished up along the high
levels of the lumbar vertebra

If you tease all this apart (spinal cord image), youll find the
filum terminalae, this little bit of pia mater that just
continues all the way down, its not a nerve its a bit of
meningeal layers but each other these other things is a
nerve that would eventually exit the cord at some lower
level than L2

(slide below)
Need to know some basic terms about the butterfly shape
Posterior horn and anterior horn on other side
Some sections of spinal cord, theres a lateral horn as well
Posterior horns important for sensory
processing
Anterior horn important for motor control
Lateral horns important for autonomic nervous
system
WHITE MATTER IS ARRANGED IN THESE COLUMNS called
funiculus or funiculi
Posterior funiculus
Lateral funiculus
Anterior funiculus
These are columns of axons going up and down the
spinal cord
Grey matter is arranged in those horns

(slide below)
Remember the concept of the columns of white matter have a very
distinct functional role
Weve already talked about the sensory importance of this
posterior column
Motor pathways travel in the lateral anterior columns of the
spinal cord
Different pyramidal and extrapyramidal tracts travel in these
lateral and anterior pathways but theres also some sensory
information you can see in those columns as well (right, blue)
Those columns are the white matter tracts either going
up or coming down the spinal cord

(slide below)

This is a typical
spinal cord segment you can see the horns were talking
about.
 You can see the characteristic arrangement of the grey matter
You can see the central canal the columns

Now you can see the nerve fibres that either entire or
originate from the grey matter
These nerve fibres you can see effectively here is a spinal
nerve, if this was a thoracic section of the spinal cord, this
would be labeled a T2 spinal nerve etc.. which you can see the
spinal nerve separating into a dorsal or a posterior route that
is attached to the dorsal or posterior horn of the spinal cord
and a ventral or an anterior route that is attached to the
ventral or anterior horn in the spinal cord

(top part is where sensory processing occurs, bottom is where motor

output occurs so these branches would then carry sensory fibres to
the spinal nerve or motor fibres respectively)

(slide below)

Real photo micrograph of a stained spinal cord again.

The grey matter you can see is made up all the cell bodies (all the
dots).
Down in the ventral or anterior horn, those cell bodies look very
different to what they do in other parts of the cord, this is because
these are the large cell bodies of motor neurons that head out to
your muscles to control muscles.
** Motor neurons have much bigger cells than do other cells in the
nervous system
** So you can see these very large motor neurons in the anterior
horn of the cord which is sending the information out
(slide below)

In the spinal cord pictured at the top, nearly all of the information
goes to the skeletal muscles again to drive movement.

(slide below)

The sensory arm of things, the cell bodies of the sensory neurons
are located in this component of the tissue (right diagram). This is
what we call a ganglion a collection of cell bodies in a peripheral
system, you can see all the body are sensory neurons located here
and theyve got an axon that goes out to the PNS and heads into the
CNS, but all of those axons terminate in the dorsal or posterior horn
located at the top, not in the anterior horn.

AGAIN, it is sensory in, motor out, by this basic arrangement in the

spinal cord
(left diagram).

(slide below)

Putting all this together, the fundamental action is our reflex.

How does it happen?
1. Sensory receptor is activated
2. Those sensory neurons now that we know their anatomy send
their information to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord
3. They have a very short loop synapse with a motor neuron
4. That motor neuron heads out through the ventral horn / roots
to synapse with a muscle to drive the muscle to contract

THAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL TYPE OF NEUROLOGICAL PROCESSING

WITHIN THE CNS (the basic physiological process occurs because of
this very defined neuroanatomical substrate)