Organization of

Nervous System
•Central Nervous System
(CNS)
A. Brain
B. Spinal Cord
•Peripheral Nervous
System (PNS)
A. Spinal (Somatic)
division = Voluntary
B. Cranial = Special
senses, muscles of
head & neck
C. Autonomic
= Involunary
1. Sympathetic
2. Parasympathetic
SOME TERMS
•Nerve = Collection of
axons in periphery
•Tract or Pathway =
Grouped axons in CNS
•Nucleus = CNS Neuronal
group
•Ganglion = PNS cell group
 Neuroaxis
• Forebrain
– [lateral & third ventricles]
– Telencephalon
• [lateral ventricle]
• cerebral cortex
– lobes
» sulci
» gyri

• basal ganglia
– corpus striatum (cerebral hemisphere)
– subthalamic nucleus (diencephalon)
– substantia nigra (midbrain)
 Neuroaxis
• Forebrain (cont.)
– Telencephalon (cont.)
• limibic system
– limbic lobe
– amygaloid complex
– septal nuclei
– hippocampus
– mammillary bodies
– hypothalamus (see below)
– epithalamus (see below)
– assorted thalamic nuclei (see below)
 Neuroaxis
• Forebrain (cont.)
– Diencephalon
• thalamus
• hypothalamus
 Neuroaxis
• Midbrain
– [cerebral aqueduct]
– Corpora Quadrigemina
• superior colliculus
• inferior colliculus
– Tegmentum (floor)
– Tectum (roof)
– Pineal Gland
• seat of the soul
 Neuroaxis
• Hindbrain (Brainstem)
– [fourth ventricle]
– Metencephalon
• Cerebellum
– lobules
– peduncles
• Pons
-Brainstem contains functional centers assoc. w/
– Myelencephalon most of cranial nerves, long tract of afferent
• Medulla (Oblongata) somatosensory info from body to forebrain, &
efferent motor impulses for voluntary movements
orig. in forebrain.
-Damage: somatosensory and/or motor dysfunction
& cranial nerve malfunction
-diagnosed by cranial nerve malfunction.
-frequently fatal: caudal vegetative functs.
 Neuroaxis
(& associated ventricles)

• Spinal Cord (31 vertebral segments)

– [central cannal] -Relation between spinal cord
levels and vertebral levels is
– Cervical (C1-C8) clinically important.
– Thoracic (T1-T12) - Spinal cord lesions are
localized according to the
– Lumbar (L1-L5) spinal cord segment.

– Sacral (S1-S5) --Most spinal levels

do not correspond to
– Coccygeal (Co1) vertebral levels,
however.
• Spinal Cord

• Spinal Ver-
tebrae
 Neuroaxis
• Peripheral Nervous System
– spinal nerves and cranial nerves
– somatic nervous system
– autonomic nervous system
• sympathetic nervous system (SNS)
• parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS)
 Terminology
• AFFERENT = SENSORY information,
conveyed TOWARD CNS
• EFFERENT = MOTOR information, carried
AWAY from CNS
• EFFECTOR = Muscle or gland, carries out
an action
• RECEPTOR = Peripheral structure that
captures and transduces stimulus
information
 Terminology (cont.)
• INTERNEURON = small neuron with short
processes, typically found in CNS
• “RELAY” or “PROJECTION” NEURON = large
neuron with long processes
• COLUMN (FUNICULI) = vertical tracts, typically
within spinal cord
• COMMISSURE = horizontal axonal
interconnections between nuclei in CNS
• IPSILATERAL = same side
• CONTRALATERAL = opposite side
• DECUSSATION = sites where axon cross sides
 Neurohistology
• Chemical Neuroanatomy
– when possible, neurotransmitters (NT) assoc w/
neurons and their projections will be discussed
• better understand normal function & pathology
– easier to understand affects of drugs on CNS
 Preparation/Visualization of
Brain Tissue
• Fix brain
– preserve it and make it easier to slice
• Section brain
– so light can pass through it for microscopy
• Stain brain
– so we can identify different structures and
determine neurochemical phenotype of the cells
 Preparation of Brain Tissue
• Section brain
– freeze brain to make it even harder and easier to cut
– section with a microtome (‘that which slices small’)
• vibratome

– sections need to be thin enough to permit light to pass

through them (10-80 µm)
 Preparation /Visualization of
Brain Tissue
• Stain brain
– cell body stains (Nissl stains after Franz Nissl)
• e.g., methylene blue
– dye derived from distillation of coal tar
• e.g., cresyl violet, thionine, toludine blue
• dyes are taken up by Nissl substances (RNA, DNA and
assoc proteins in nucleus, ribosomes in cytoplasm)

Cresyl Violet
Staining of
Primate Brain
 Preparation /Visualization of
Brain Tissue
• Golgi stains (after Camillo Golgi -won Nobel)
• uses silver and causes a black reaction staining entire
neuron and all processes
• capricious staining of neurons
– advantage because if all were stained it would be tangled mess
– disadvantage because no one knows why some stain, others don’t

Golgi Staining of
Cerebral Cortex
 Preparation /Visualization of
Brain Tissue
• Stain brain (cont.)
– fiber stains
• e.g., hemotoxylin
– have affinity for lipids (myelin sheath covering many axons

Hemotoxylin
Staining of Rat
Brain
 Tract Tracing Techniques
• This is how we know what is connected to what
– rely on ability of neurons to take up tracer and transport them
• Anterograde Tract Tracing (away from cell body)
– from dendrites to boutons
• Retrograde Tract Tracing (towards cell body)
– from boutons to dendrites
• Transneuronal Tract Tracing (from neuron to neuron)
– can be either anterograde or retrograde
 Retrograde Tract Tracing
• Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)
– HRP is enzyme that splits peroxidase molecules
making them insoluble salts (making them stay put)
• readily taken up at synapse
• can use pure or make even more likely to be taken up
– conjugate it -- cholera toxin (bacterial toxin)or wheat germ
agglutinin (WGA; lectin)
– in vivo procedure
– to make visible, react with benzine derivative (diaminobenzide
tetrahydrochloride [DAB]) -- chromagen results
 Anterograde Tract Tracing
• Phaseolus vulagaris leukoagglutinin (PHAL)
– plant lectin taken up by cell dendrites and
transported to bouton
– visualized by immunocytochemistry (ICC; see
below)
– advantage: detailed cell morphology, can go
transsynaptically!
– disadvantage: has to be iontophoretically applied,
signal decreases with each synapse
 Immunocytochemistry (ICC)
• If you are interested in the distribution of a
neurotransmitter, then ICC is appropriate
• ICC works well in identifying neuropeptide
transmitters because antibodies can be easily generated
– simply, you use the ability of antibodies to attach to its
antigen
• then you make the antibody visible
– most often, attaching a chromagen (coloring agent) to the non-binding
part of the antibody produces too weak of a signal to visualize (‘direct
visualization’)
» you need to amplify signal by building on the binding of the
antibody to the epitope of the antigen so you can attach more than
one chromagen per bound antibody-antigen
 In Situ Hybridization
• ICC tells you the distribution of
neurotransmitters (NTs) or their enzymes of
synthesis
– It does not tell you that the NTs are synthesized
where they are located. •For example, serotonin is
synthesized in midbrain
(dorsal and median raphe)
but projections go rostral to
far reaches of forebrain
•Thus, slices of forebrain
show serotonin but not
where it is made!
 In Situ Hybridization
• In situ hybridization tells you the where a
neurotransmitters (NTs) It does not tell you
that the NTs are distributed.

•For example, in situ

hybridization for serotonin
would show midbrain
location (dorsal and median
raphe) but NOT the
projections to rostral
forebrain