Nervous System Part 1

Functions of the Nervous System

- Receiving sensory input - Maintaining homeostasis

- Integrating information - Establishing and maintaining mental
- Controlling muscles and glands activity

Divisions of the Nervous System

Central Nervous System
- Consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System

- Consists of all the nervous tissue outside the CNS, including nerves and ganglia.
- Is the communication link between the CNS and the various parts of the body.

- Carries information about different tissues of the body to the CNS and delivers
commands from the CNS to the other body parts.

Stimuli —-> Receptor (receiving sensory input) —-> Integrating information (Central Nervous
System) —-> Sending response command by CNS (Peripheral Nervous System) —-> Effector
(muscles and glands) —-> Action

1
The peripheral nervous system is divided into two divisions: sensory and motor division.

1
Sensory Divsion is known also as afferent “toward” division. The word afferent comes from Latin
“afferens” meaning carrying towards. Therefore, the sensory division refers to the processing of the
stimuli received by the body. *Apply the formula to the motor division.
Sensory (Afferent) Division
- Conducts action potentials from sensory receptors to the CNS.
- Sensory Neurons are the neurons that transmit action potentials from the periphery to
the CNS.

2
Motor (Efferent) Division
- PNS conducts action potentials from the CNS to effector organs.
- Motor neurons are the neurons that transmit action potentials from the CNS toward the
periphery.

Motor Division is subdivided into two components: the somatic nervous system and
the autonomic nervous system.

Somatic Nervous System

- Transmit action potentials from CNS to skeletal muscles (voluntary muscle).

Autonomic Nervous System

- Transmits action potentials from the CNS to cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and glands.
- It is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions.

Sympathetic Division
- prepares the body for stressful or emergencies, often called the "fight or flight"
response. It increases heart rate, releases stored energy, and diverts blood flow to
muscles, among other effects, enabling the body to respond quickly to threats.

Parasympathetic Division
- helps the body to rest and digest. It's often called the "rest and digest" or "feed
and breed" system. This division decreases heart rate, increases intestinal and gland
activity, and promotes relaxation and recovery after a stressful event.

Enteric Nervous System

- A special nervous system found only in the digestive tract.

2
These divisions are named based on the direction of information flow relative to the CNS: "afferent"
towards the CNS and "efferent" away from the CNS, highlighting their roles in the body's response to
stimuli.
The sensory division of the peripheral nervous system detects stimuli an conducts action
potentials to the central nervous system. The CNS interprets incoming action potentials and initiates that
are conducted through the motor division to produce a response.
Cells of the Nervous System

Neurons

- Receive stimuli, conduct action potentials, and transmit signals to other neurons or
effector organs.

Glial Cells

- Supportive cells of the CNS and PNS, meaning these cells do not conduct action
potentials.
- Glial cells perform different functions that enhance neuron function and maintain normal
conditions with nervous tissue.

- Astrocytes serve as the major supporting cells in the CNS.

- Ependymal cells line the cavities in the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid.
- Microglial cells act in an immune function in the CNS by removing bacteria and cell
debris.
- Oligodendrocytes provide myelin to axons of neurons in the CNS.
- Schwann cells provide myelin to the axons
of neurons in the PNS.

Neurons

Cell Body - contains a single nucleus.

Dendrite - a cytoplasmic extension from the

cell body, that usually receives information
from other neurons and transmits the
information to the cell body.

Axon - a single long cell process that leaves

the cell body at the axon hillock and
conducts sensory signals to the CNS motor
signals away from the CNS.
Structural Types of Neurons

Multipolar - neurons have many dendrites and a single axon.

Bipolar - neurons have two processes: one dendrite and one axon.

Pseudo-unipolar - neurons have a single process extending from the cell body, which
divides into two processes as short distance from the cell body3.

Myelin Sheath and Unmyelinated Neurons

Myelin Sheath

- Myelin Sheaths are specialized layers that wrap around the axons of some neurons,
those neurons are termed myelinated.

- The sheaths are formed by Oligodendrocytes in the CNS and Schwann cells in the PNS.

- Myelin is an excellent insulator that prevents almost all ion movement across the cell
membrane.

- Gaps in the myelin sheath, called nodes of Ranvier, occur about every millimeter.

- Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the myelin sheath that causes loss of muscle function.
3
Astrocytes can stimulate or inhibit the signaling activity of nearby neurons and form the blood-brain
barrier.
Unmyelinated Neurons

- Unmyelinated axons lack the myelin sheaths.

- A typical small nerve, which consists of axons of multiple neurons, usually contains more
unmyelinated axons than myelinated axons.

4
feeefOrganization of Nervous Tissue

- Nervous tissue varies in color due to the abundance or absence of myelinated axons.
- Nervous tissue exists as gray matter and white matter.
- Gray matter consists of groups of neuron cell bodies and their dendrites, where there is
very little myelin.
- White matter consists of bundles of parallel axons with their myelin sheaths, which are
whitish in color.

Resting Membrane Potential

- All cells have electrical properties, which are evident at their cell membranes.
- The phospholipid bilayer of the cell membrane is impermeable to ions but ions ca cross
the membrane through ion channels.
- There are two types of ion channels: leak channels and gated channels.

Leak channels are always open so ions can diffuse across the membrane, down their
concentration gradient.
Gated channels are closed until opened by specific signals.

• Chemically gated channels are opened by chemicals such as neurotransmitters.

• Voltage-gated channels are opened by a change in the electrical property of the cell
membrane.
4
Most of the neurons within the CNS and nearly all motor neurons are multipolar. Bipolar neurons are
located in some sensory organs, such as in the retina of the eye and in the nasal cavity. The two
extensions function as a single axon with small, dendriite-like sensory receptors at the periphery.
- In most cells, the inside of the membrane has a negative charge relative to the outside of
the membrane, which has a positive charge.
- The membrane is said to be polarized.
- When the cell is at rest, this voltage is called the resting membrane potential.

NOTES
Nerve Cell Communication
- Nerve cells are excitable
- The resting membrane potential can change in response to a stimuli.
- In nerve cells, this change in a means by which the cell communicates with other cells.
- The changes in membrane potential that nerve cells use to communicate with other cells
are called action potentials.

Gated Membrane Channels

- The stimuli that cause action potentials activate gated channels which are closed until
opened by specific signals.
- The opening and closing of gated ion channels changes the permeability of the
membrane to ions and can therefore change the membrane potential,
- Action potential may result.

Synapse
- A neuroneuronal synapse is a junction where the axon of one neuron interacts with
another neuron.
- The end of the axon forms a presynaptic terminal and the membrane of the next neuron
forms the postsynaptic membrane, with a synaptic cleft between the two membranes.
- Chemical substances called neurotransmitters are stored in synaptic vesicles in the
presynaptic terminal.

Neurotransmitters
- There are many neurotransmitters, with the best known being acetylcholine and
norepinephrine.
- Neurotransmitters do not normally remain in the synaptic cleft indefinitely, thus their
effects are short duration.
- Acetylcholinesterase an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
- Norepinephrine is either actively transported back into the presynaptic terminal or
broken down by enzymes.

Neuronal Pathway (Converging)

- The CNS has simple to complex neuronal pathways.
- A converging pathway is a simple pathway in which two or more neurons synapse with
the same postsynaptic neuron.
- This allows information transmitted in more than one neuronal pathway to converge into
a single pathway,

Neuronal Pathway (Diverging)

- A diverging pathway is a simple pathway in which an axon from one neuron divides and
synapses with more than one other postsynaptic neuron.
- This allows information transmitted in one neuronal pathway to diverge into two or more
pathways.
Summation

- A single presynaptic action potential usually does not cause a sufficiently large
postsynaptic local potential to reach the threshold and produce an action potential in the
target cell.
- Many presynaptic action potentials are needed in a process called summation.
- Summation of signals in neuronal pathways allows integration of multiple subthreshold
local potentials.
- Summation of the local potentials can bring the membrane potential to the threshold and
trigger an action potential.

Spatial summation
- Occurs when the local potentials originate from different location on the postsynaptic
neuron—for example, form converging pathways.

Temporal summation
- Occurs when local potentials overlap in time.

This can occur from a single input that fires rapidly, which allows the resulting local potentials to
overlap briefly.

Spatial and temporal summation can lead to stimulation or inhibition, depending on the type of
signal.