Transcript The Nervous System - Watchung Hills Regional High School

By Carolyn Sivco, Hailey Lapa, Preslee Nolte, Stephanie
Azevedo, and Meghan Castellano
3 Major Divisions of the Brain
 Cerebellum
 Medulla Oblongata
 Cerebrum
Cerebellum
 Coordination of voluntary, equilibrium, and muscle
tone.
 Integrates and passes both sensory and motor
information to/from the brain.
 Maintains posture, and balance.
 Regulates skeletal movements and muscles in order to
have smooth/coordinated movements
 Necessary for learning new motor skills
Cerebellum
 Neurons of the cerebellar cortex are distributed into
three layers.
 Molecular Layer: most external, crest shape, and
elaborates information.
 Intermediate Layer: made up of Purkinje cells which
carry information relative to the movements of the body
to the outside of the cerebellum
 The Granular Layer: most inner layer, granular and
Golgi cells-filter incoming information.
Damage to Cerebellum
 Injury can cause slowed and/or uncoordinated movements
 The inability to judge distance and when to stop







(dysmetria)
The inability to perform rapid alternating movements
(adiadochokinesia)
movement tremors (intention tremors)
staggering, wide based walking (ataxic gait)
tendency toward falling
weak muscles (hypotonia)
slurred speech (ataxic dysarthria)
abnormal eye movements (nystagmus)
Cerebral palsy
 Lack of oxygen to the brain tissue.
 Can occur during birth by trauma and lack of blood






flow to the brain
It is more common in twins and premature labors
Abnormal movements (twisting, jerking, or writhing)
of the hands, feet, arms, or legs while awake, which
gets worse during periods of stress
Tremors
Unsteady gait
Loss of coordination
Floppy muscles
Fun Facts
 From birth age until age 2, the cerebellum grows faster
than the rate of the brain.
 Is almost like a mini brain. “Memories of work” –
gradually learned movements. “Data bank” – daily
movements.
 Rapid impulses produced by cerebral cortex can
elaborate data in less then 1/10 of a second.
Medulla Oblongata
 Structure:
 Located at the bottom of the brainstem
 Connects the brain and the spinal cord
 Only 3 cm long
 Controls and regulates numerous visceral organs
 Allows nerve signals to move from the brain to the
spinal cord
 The vagus nerve
Medulla Oblongata
 Regulates and controls:
 Breathing
 Blood pressure
 Heartbeat
 Contains reflex centers for vomiting, coughing,
sneezing, hiccupping, and swallowing
Damage to the Medulla
 Supportive equipment may be needed to keep the
body working
 Head injuries and a variety of drugs and medications
can cause this damage (ex. opiates and alcohol)
Cerebrum
 Located in the front/top of the brainstem
 Largest and most developed division in the brain.
 The cerebral cortex
 Receives and processes visual, auditory, somatosensory,
gustatory, and olfactory information.
 Composed of 4 lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital.
 Speech and language
Limbic System
 Composed of the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala.
 The primary functions:
 Emotions
 Memories
 The hypothalamus = mainly concerned with homeostasis.
 The hippocampus = short and long term memories
 The amygdala = the feeling of stimulating anger.
Cerebrum Pictures
Pictures (cont)
Temporal Lobe
 Located beneath the frontal and parietal lobes on each
side of the brain
 just above one’s ears
 Functions:
 Emotional responses
 Hearing
 Memory
 Speech
 Reading
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
 Reoccurring seizures that affect temporal lobe
functions
 Causes
Head injury or an infection that affects the brain, such
as meningitis.
 Genetics
 Blood vessel malformations
 Simple Partial Seizures – consciousness is not affected
 Complex Partial Seizures – consciousness is affected
 Medications and surgery can be used to treat this

disease
Occipital Lobe
 Smallest part of the brain; located at the back of the
skull
 Processes visual information
 Recognition of shapes and colors
 Occipital Lobe Epilepsy
 Unusual seizures, hallucinations, uncontrollable eye
movements, fast eye-blinking, eye pain
 Caused by genetics, tumors, vascular malfunctions,
trauma, or brain injuries
Parietal Lobe
 Located behind the frontal lobes and above the
temporal lobes
 Functions:
 Information Processing
 Pain and Touch Sensation
 Speech
 Visual Perception
Frontal Lobe
 Located at the front of the cerebrum
 Extremely vulnerable to injury
 Functions:
 Reasoning & planning
 Parts of speech
 Movement
 Emotions
Neuron in Impulse Transmission
 Dendrites or senders trigger the neuron.
 Sodium Ions come through the plasma membrane, while
potassium ions leave the cell.
 An electrical impulse is formed
 the cyton receives the impulse and sends it to the axons.
 A chemical transmitter (acetylcholine) is released into the
synapse
 the chemical transmitter then keeps the process going by
activating the nerves.
Pictures
Types of head Injuries
 Concussion
 injury to the brain
 pass out for a short time
 vision blurs and trouble balancing.
 Contusion
 bruise of the brain
 bleeding
 causing swelling.
 Skull Fracture
 when the skull cracks
 sometimes edges of the broken bones can cut into the brain
 causes bleeding and swelling
 Hematoma
 bleeding in the brain that clots and then forms a bump.
Brain Abscesses
 Collection of immune cells, pus, and other material in the
brain.
 Caused when bacteria or fungi infects part of the brain.
 Swelling and inflammation usually develops in response
 A membrane forms around the infected area and creates a
brain abscess.
 Brain swells and puts pressure on soft brain tissue = NOT GOOD


The infected material may cause blockage of the blood vessels in the
brain.
Life threatening
Brain Abscesses cont’d
 What are the symptoms of brain abscesses?
 aching neck, shoulders, or back
 change in mental status or confusion
 fever and chills
 Headache and vision changes
 Vomiting
 loss of muscle function
 How do you treat this?
 Antibiotics

fight off the bacteria that caused the infection
 Surgery may be needed depending on the severity of the
infection.
Diseases of the Brain and
Nervous System
 Huntington’s disease
 Epilepsy
 Alzheimer’s Disease
 Trigeminal Neuralgia
Huntington’s Disease
 Genetically programmed degeneration of brain cells
 Symptoms:
 depression, mood swings, irritability, and trouble doing
simple tasks like driving.
 Degeneration causes uncontrollable movements,
emotional disturbance, and loss of intellectual abilities.
 Medication to control HD
 Side effects include:
 fatigue, restlessness, and hyperexcitibility.
Epilepsy “to Seize”
 common neurological disorder recurrent seizures.
 abnormal or excessive neuronal activity in the brain.
 can sometimes be controlled (but not cured) by medication
 Commissurotomy can reduce the severity of the seizures.
 corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain,
gets cut.
 Stimuli are transferred
 For epilepsy massive amounts of neurons are transferred
 if the connection is cut the neurons will stay in one hemisphere,
which reduces the severity of the seizure.
Alzheimer’s Disease
 Most common form of dementia
 Loss of ability in thinking , remembering, and reasoning.
 Damage to brain begins 10 to 20 years before any problems are
evident.
 Plaques form and healthy neurons begin to work less efficiently.
 Third stage is the loss of connections between neurons in the
brain because they lose their ability to function and
communicate.
Trigeminal Neuralgia
 Nerve disorder of the fifth cranial nerve (trigeminal)
 Sudden shock-like facial pains
 Normally only affects one side of the face, sometimes
found on both sides.
 Called "suicide disease“ and/or most excruciatingly
painful human condition.
 Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia
 Common age for TN is around 50
 has also been found in infants and teens.
Trigeminal Neuralgia
 Treatment:
 anti-convulsant drugs, such as Tegretol or Neurontin.
 neurosurgical procedures
 medical therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic
adjustment, self-hypnosis or meditation.
 Rare disease - affects less than 200,000 people US.
 The exact cause of TN is not fully understood.
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Marijuana (pot)
 The temporal lobe
 weakens short term memory and even blocks info from
becoming long term memory.
 The prefontal lobe
 controls our emotions and higher thinking.
 The hypothalamus
 controls hunger stimulus.
 people get the “munchies” after they use pot
Inhalants
 Effect the brain immediately after using.
 Fatty tissues that protect the nerve cells in the brain
get destroyed by the vapors.
 neural transmissions slow down or even stop.
 Effects of the inhalants include:
 diminished ability to learn, remember, and solve
problems.
THE END <3