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Central and Peripheral Nervous System, Spinal Cord and Spinal Nerves

The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system includes all nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. The spinal cord extends from the skull to the lower back and contains white matter tracts surrounded by gray matter in an H-shape. Spinal nerves exit the spinal cord and contain sensory and motor neurons, carrying information to and from the central nervous system. Reflexes like the knee jerk and withdrawal reflex use spinal cord circuits to coordinate rapid responses to stimuli.

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64 views

Central and Peripheral Nervous System, Spinal Cord and Spinal Nerves

The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system includes all nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. The spinal cord extends from the skull to the lower back and contains white matter tracts surrounded by gray matter in an H-shape. Spinal nerves exit the spinal cord and contain sensory and motor neurons, carrying information to and from the central nervous system. Reflexes like the knee jerk and withdrawal reflex use spinal cord circuits to coordinate rapid responses to stimuli.

Uploaded by

Daniel Daniel
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Central and Peripheral Nervous System, Spinal Cord and Spinal Nerves

Central Nervous System

 Consists of the brain and spinal cord


 The brain is housed within the braincase; the spinal cord is in the vertebral column.

Peripheral Nervous System

 consists of all the nerves and ganglia outside the brain and spinal cord.
 collects information from numerous sources both inside and on the surface of the body and
relays it by way of sensory neurons to the CNS.

Spinal Cord

 extends from the foramen magnum at the base of the skull to the second lumbar vertebra
 The inferior end of the spinal cord and the spinal nerves exiting there resemble a horse’s tail and
are collectively called the cauda equina.

Cross section of the Spinal cord

 A cross section reveals that the spinal cord consists of a superficial white matter portion and a
deep gray matter portion
 The white matter consists of myelinated axons,
o The white matter in each half of the spinal cord is organized into three columns: the
dorsal (posterior), ventral (anterior), and lateral columns.
 Each column of the spinal cord contains ascending and descending tracts, or
pathways
 The gray matter is mainly a collection of neuron cell bodies.
o The gray matter of the spinal cord is shaped like the letter H, with posterior horns and
anterior horns.
o Small lateral horns exist in levels of the cord associated with the autonomic nervous
system.
o The central canal is a fluid-filled space in the center of the cord.
 Spinal nerves arise from numerous rootlets along the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the spinal
cord
o The ventral rootlets combine to form a ventral root on the ventral (anterior) side of the
spinal cord, and the dorsal rootlets combine to form a dorsal root on the dorsal
(posterior) side of the cord at each segment.
o The dorsal root contains a ganglion called the dorsal root ganglion
 The axons of these neurons originate in the periphery of the body. They pass through spinal
nerves and the dorsal roots to the posterior horn of the spinal cord gray matter. In the posterior
horn, the axons either synapse with interneurons or pass into the white matter and ascend or
descend in the spinal cord.
 The cell bodies of motor neurons, which regulate the activities of muscles and glands, are
located in the anterior and lateral horns of the spinal cord gray matter. Somatic motor neurons
are in the anterior horn, and autonomic neurons are in the lateral horn. Axons from the motor
neurons form the ventral roots and pass into the spinal nerves. Thus, the dorsal root contains
sensory axons, and the ventral root contains motor axons. Each spinal nerve therefore has both
sensory and motor axons.

Spinal Cord Reflexes

 Knee-Jerk Reflex
o is a classic example of the stretch reflex.
 The simplest reflex is the stretch reflex, in which muscles contract in response to
a stretching force applied to them.
o When the patellar ligament is tapped, the quadriceps femoris muscle tendon and the
muscles themselves are stretched.
o Sensory receptors within these muscles are also stretched, and the stretch reflex is
activated. Consequently, contraction of the muscles extends the leg, producing the
characteristic knee-jerk response.
 Withdrawal Reflex
o The function of the withdrawal reflex, or flexor reflex, is to remove a limb or another
body part from a painful stimulus. The sensory receptors are pain receptors
o Following painful stimuli, sensory neurons conduct action potentials through the dorsal
root to the spinal cord, where the sensory neurons synapse with interneurons, which in
turn synapse with motor neurons
o These neurons stimulate muscles, usually flexor muscles, that remove the limb from the
source of the painful stimulus.

Spinal Nerves

 The spinal nerves arise along the spinal cord from the union of the dorsal roots and ventral roots
 All the spinal nerves contain axons of both sensory and somatic motor neurons and thus are
called mixed nerves.
 Most of the spinal nerves exit the vertebral column between adjacent vertebrae.
 Spinal nerves are categorized by the region of the vertebral column from which they emerge—
cervical (C), thoracic (T), lumbar (L), sacral (S), and coccygeal (Co). The spinal nerves are also
numbered (starting superiorly) according to their order within that region. The 31 pairs of spinal
nerves are therefore C1 through C8, T1 through T12, L1 through L5, S1 through S5, and Co.
 The nerves arising from each region of the spinal cord and vertebral column supply specific
regions of the body. A dermatome is the area of skin supplied with sensory innervation by a pair
of spinal nerves. Each of the spinal nerves except C1 has a specific cutaneous sensory
distribution.

*kasama din yung picture sa plexuses

Three Major Plexuses

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