Nervous System

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The Nervous System

MB Samad
Functions of the nervous system
• Sensation. The first major function of the nervous system is sensation
—receiving information about the environment to gain input about
what is happening outside the body (or, sometimes, within the body). 
• The sensory functions of the nervous system register the presence of
a change from homeostasis or a particular event in the environment,
known as a stimulus.
• The senses we think of most are the “big five”: taste, smell, touch,
sight, and hearing. 
Functions of the nervous system
• Sensation. The stimuli for taste and smell are both chemical
substances (molecules, compounds, ions, etc.), touch is physical or
mechanical stimuli that interact with the skin, sight is light stimuli, and
hearing is the perception of sound, which is a physical stimulus similar
to some aspects of touch.
• There are actually more senses than just those, but that list
represents the major senses. Those five are all senses that receive
stimuli from the outside world, and of which there is conscious
perception. 
Functions of the nervous system
• Response. The nervous system produces a response on the basis of
the stimuli perceived by sensory structures. An obvious response
would be the movement of muscles, such as withdrawing a hand from
a hot stove, but there are broader uses of the term. The nervous
system can cause the contraction of all three types of muscle tissue.
• For example, skeletal muscle contracts to move the skeleton, cardiac
muscle is influenced as heart rate increases during exercise, and
smooth muscle contracts as the digestive system moves food along
the digestive tract. 
Functions of the nervous system
• Response. Responses also include the neural control of glands in the
body as well, such as the production and secretion of sweat by the
eccrine and merocrine sweat glands found in the skin to lower body
temperature.
• Responses can be divided into those that are voluntary or conscious
(contraction of skeletal muscle) and those that are involuntary
(contraction of smooth muscles, regulation of cardiac muscle,
activation of glands). Voluntary responses are governed by the
somatic nervous system and involuntary responses are governed by
the autonomic nervous system, which are discussed in the next
section.
Functions of the nervous system
• Integration. Stimuli that are received by sensory structures are
communicated to the nervous system where that information is processed.
This is called integration. Stimuli are compared with, or integrated with, other
stimuli, memories of previous stimuli, or the state of a person at a particular
time. This leads to the specific response that will be generated. Seeing a
baseball pitched to a batter will not automatically cause the batter to swing.

• The trajectory of the ball and its speed will need to be considered. Maybe the
count is three balls and one strike, and the batter wants to let this pitch go by
in the hope of getting a walk to first base. Or maybe the batter’s team is so far
ahead, it would be fun to just swing away.
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
• The somatic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for conscious
perception and voluntary motor responses. Voluntary motor response
means the contraction of skeletal muscle, but those contractions are
not always voluntary in the sense that you have to want to perform
them. 
• Some somatic motor responses are reflexes, and often happen
without a conscious decision to perform them. If your friend jumps
out from behind a corner and yells “Boo!” you will be startled and you
might scream or leap back. 
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
• The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for involuntary
control of the body, usually for the sake of homeostasis (regulation of
the internal environment). Sensory input for autonomic functions can
be from sensory structures tuned to external or internal
environmental stimuli. 
• The motor output extends to smooth and cardiac muscle as well as
glandular tissue. The role of the autonomic system is to regulate the
organ systems of the body, which usually means to control
homeostasis. 
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS)  continued….

• Sweat glands, for example, are controlled by the autonomic system.


When you are hot, sweating helps cool your body down. That is a
homeostatic mechanism. But when you are nervous, you might start
sweating also. That is not homeostatic, it is the physiological response
to an emotional state.
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
• The enteric nervous system (ENS) is responsible for controlling the
smooth muscle and glandular tissue in your digestive system. It is a
large part of the PNS, and is not dependent on the CNS. 
The Nervous Tissue Nervous tissue, also called neural
tissue or nerve tissue, is the
main tissue component of the nervous
system. 

The nervous system is composed


of neurons, or nerve cells, which receive
and transmit impulses, and neuroglia,
also known as glial cells or glia, which
assist the propagation of the nerve
impulse as well as provide nutrients to
the neurons.
Functional Classification of Neurons
• Sensory neurons (afferent): Relay sensory information in the form of
an action potential (nerve impulse) from the PNS to the CNS
• Motor neurons (efferent): Relay an action potential out of the CNS to
the proper effector (muscles, glands)
• Interneurons: Cells that form connections between neurons and
whose processes are limited to a single local area in the brain or
spinal cord
Structural classification of Neurons
• Multipolar neurons: Have 3 or more processes coming off the soma (cell
body). They are the major neuron type in the CNS and include interneurons
and motor neurons. Multipolar neurons form the majority of neurons in
the central nervous system. They include motor
neurons and interneurons/relaying neurons are most commonly found in
the cortex of the brain, the spinal cord.

• Bipolar neurons: Sensory neurons that have two processes coming off the
soma, one dendrite and one axon. They are part of the sensory pathways
for smell, sight, taste, hearing and vestibular functions.
• Pseudounipolar neurons: Sensory neurons that have one process that
splits into two branches, forming the axon and dendrite.

• Unipolar brush cells: Are excitatory glutamatergic interneurons that


have a single short dendrite terminating in a brush-like tuft of
dendrioles. These are found in the granular layer of the cerebellum.
Structural Classification of Neurons

Multi-polar neuron Pseudo-bipolar neuron Bipolar neuron Unipolar neuron


Membrane Potential
• Membrane potential (also transmembrane potential or membrane
voltage) is the difference in electric potential between the interior
and the exterior of a biological cell. With respect to the exterior of the
cell, typical values of membrane potential, normally given
in millivolts, range from –40 mV to –80 mV.
Membrane Potential
• All animal cells are surrounded by a membrane composed of a lipid
bilayer with proteins embedded in it. The membrane serves as both
an insulator and a diffusion barrier to the movement
of ions. Transmembrane proteins, also known as ion
transporter or ion pump proteins, actively push ions across the
membrane and establish concentration gradients across the
membrane, and ion channels allow ions to move across the
membrane down those concentration gradients.
Membrane Potential
• Almost all plasma membranes have an electrical potential across them, with
the inside usually negative with respect to the outside.[1] The membrane
potential has two basic functions. First, it allows a cell to function as a
battery, providing power to operate a variety of "molecular devices"
embedded in the membrane. Second, in electrically excitable cells such
as neurons and muscle cells, it is used for transmitting signals between
different parts of a cell. Signals are generated by opening or closing of ion
channels at one point in the membrane, producing a local change in the
membrane potential. This change in the electric field can be quickly affected
by either adjacent or more distant ion channels in the membrane. Those ion
channels can then open or close as a result of the potential change,
reproducing the signal.
Membrane Potential
• In non-excitable cells, and in excitable cells in their baseline states,
the membrane potential is held at a relatively stable value, called
the resting potential. For neurons, typical values of the resting
potential range from –70 to –80 millivolts; that is, the interior of a cell
has a negative baseline voltage of a bit less than one-tenth of a volt.
The opening and closing of ion channels can induce a departure from
the resting potential. This is called a depolarization if the interior
voltage becomes less negative (say from –70 mV to –60 mV), or
a hyperpolarization if the interior voltage becomes more negative (say
from –70 mV to –80 mV).
Membrane Potential
• In excitable cells, a sufficiently large depolarization can evoke
an action potential, in which the membrane potential changes rapidly
and significantly for a short time (on the order of 1 to 100
milliseconds), often reversing its polarity. Action potentials are
generated by the activation of certain voltage-gated ion channels.
Membrane Potential
Action Potential
• An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a
specific axon location rapidly rises and falls:[1] this depolarisation then causes
adjacent locations to similarly depolarise. Action potentials occur in several
types of animal cells, called excitable cells, which include neurons, muscle
cells, endocrine cells
• In neurons, action potentials play a central role in cell-to-cell communication.
• In other types of cells, their main function is to activate intracellular processes.
• In muscle cells, for example, an action potential is the first step in the chain of
events leading to contraction. In beta cells of the pancreas, they provoke
release of insulin.
Action Potential
• Approximate plot of a typical action potential shows its various
phases as the action potential passes a point on a cell membrane.
The membrane potential starts out at −70 mV at time zero. A
stimulus is applied at time = 1 ms, which raises the membrane
potential above −55 mV (the threshold potential). After the stimulus
is applied, the membrane potential rapidly rises to a peak potential of
+40 mV at time = 2 ms. Just as quickly, the potential then drops and
overshoots to −90 mV at time = 3 ms, and finally the resting potential
of −70 mV is reestablished at time = 5 ms.
Synaptic Neurotransmission
• When an action potential arrives at
the end of the pre-synaptic axon
(top), it causes the release
of neurotransmitter molecules that
open ion channels in the post-
synaptic neuron (bottom). The
combined excitatory and inhibitory
postsynaptic potentials of such
inputs can begin a new action
potential in the post-synaptic
neuron.
Receptors
•  Receptors are chemical structures, composed of protein, that receive
and transduce signals that may be integrated into biological
systems. These signals are typically chemical messengers, which bind
to a receptor, they cause some form of cellular/tissue response, e.g. a
change in the electrical activity of a cell.
Types of Receptors
Pain
• The International Association for the Study of Pain's widely used
definition defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional
experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or
described in terms of such damage”
• Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations,
to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar
experiences in the future.
• Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the
body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus
and apparent healing of the body.
Classification of Pain: Acute and Chronic
Pain
• Pain that lasts a long time is called chronic or persistent, and pain that
resolves quickly is called acute. 

• Pain is usually transitory, lasting only until the noxious stimulus is


removed or the underlying damage or pathology has healed, but
some painful conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, peripheral
neuropathy, cancer and idiopathic pain, may persist for years.
Classification of Pain: Nociceptive Pain
• Nociceptive pain is caused by stimulation of sensory nerve fibersthat
respond to stimuli approaching or exceeding harmful intensity
(nociceptors), and may be classified according to the mode of noxious
stimulation.
• The most common categories are "thermal" (e.g. heat or cold),
"mechanical" (e.g. crushing, tearing, shearing, etc.) and "chemical"
(e.g. iodine in a cut or chemicals released during inflammation).
Classification of Pain: Neuropathic Pain
• Neuropathic pain is caused by damage or disease affecting any part of
the nervous system involved in bodily feelings.
• Neuropathic pain is often described as "burning", "tingling",
"electrical", "stabbing", or "pins and needles".
Classification of Pain: Psychogenic Pain
• Psychogenic pain, also called psychalgia or somatoform pain, is pain
caused, increased, or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral
factors. Headache, back pain, and stomach pain are sometimes
diagnosed as psychogenic. Sufferers are often stigmatized, because
both medical professionals and the general public tend to think that
pain from a psychological source is not "real". However, specialists
consider that it is no less actual or hurtful than pain from any other
source.
Classification of Pain: Breakthrough Pain
• Breakthrough pain is transitory pain that comes on suddenly and is
not alleviated by the patient's regular pain management. It is
common in cancer patients who often have background pain that is
generally well-controlled by medications, but who also sometimes
experience bouts of severe pain that from time to time "breaks
through" the medication. The characteristics of breakthrough cancer
pain vary from person to person and according to the cause.
Management of breakthrough pain can entail intensive use of opioids,
including fentanyl.

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