|
Somatic Nervous System
The somatic nervous system (SNS), or voluntary nervous system is the part of the peripheral nervous system associated with the voluntary control of body movements via skeletal muscles. The somatic nervous system consists of sensory nerves carrying afferent nerve fibers, which relay sensation from the body to the central nervous system (CNS), and motor nerves carrying efferent nerve fibers, which relay motor commands from the CNS to stimulate muscle contraction. The ''a-'' of ''afferent'' and the ''e-'' of ''efferent'' correspond to the prefixes ''ad-'' (to, toward) and ''ex-'' (out of). Structure There are 43 segments of nerves in the human body. With each segment, there is a pair of sensory and motor nerves. In the body, 31 segments of nerves are in the spinal cord and 12 are in the brain stem. Besides these, thousands of association nerves are also present in the body. Thus the somatic nervous system consists of two parts: * Spinal nerves: They are mixed nerves that carry sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Brain
The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sense organs, and making decisions as to the instructions sent to the rest of the body. The brain is contained in, and protected by, the skull bones of the head. The cerebrum, the largest part of the human brain, consists of two cerebral hemispheres. Each hemisphere has an inner core composed of white matter, and an outer surface – the cerebral cortex – composed of grey matter. The cortex has an outer layer, the neocortex, and an inner allocortex. The neocortex is made up of six neuronal layers, while the allocortex has three or four. Each hemisphere is conventionally divided into four lobes – the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either inflectional, creating a new form of the word with the same basic meaning and same part of speech, lexical category (but playing a different role in the sentence), or Morphological derivation, derivational, creating a new word with a new semantics, semantic meaning and sometimes also a different Part of speech, lexical category. Prefixes, like all other affixes, are usually Bound and unbound morphemes, bound morphemes. In English language, English, there are no inflectional prefixes; English uses suffixes instead for that purpose. The word ''prefix'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lower Motor Neuron
Lower motor neurons (LMNs) are motor neurons located in either the anterior grey column, anterior nerve roots (spinal lower motor neurons) or the cranial nerve nuclei of the brainstem and cranial nerves with motor function (cranial nerve lower motor neurons). Many voluntary movements rely on spinal lower motor neurons, which innervate skeletal muscle fibers and act as a link between upper motor neurons and muscles. Cranial nerve lower motor neurons also control some voluntary movements of the eyes, face and tongue, and contribute to chewing, swallowing and vocalization. Damage to the lower motor neurons can lead to flaccid paralysis, absent deep tendon reflexes and muscle atrophy. Classification Lower motor neurons are classified based on the type of muscle fiber they innervate: * Alpha motor neurons (α-MNs) innervate extrafusal muscle fibers, the most numerous type of muscle fiber and the one involved in muscle contraction. * Beta motor neurons (β-MNs) innervate intrafusal fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corticospinal Tract
The corticospinal tract is a white matter motor pathway starting at the cerebral cortex that terminates on lower motor neurons and interneurons in the spinal cord, controlling movements of the limbs and trunk. There are more than one million neurons in the corticospinal tract, and they become myelinated usually in the first two years of life. The corticospinal tract is one of the pyramidal tracts, the other being the corticobulbar tract. Anatomy The corticospinal tract originates in several parts of the brain, including not just the motor areas, but also the primary somatosensory cortex and premotor areas. Most of the neurons originate in the primary motor cortex (precentral gyrus, Brodmann area 4) or the premotor frontal areas.Purves, D. et al. (2012). Neuroscience: Fifth edition. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.Kolb, B. & Whishaw, I. Q. (2014). An introduction to brain and behavior: Fourth edition. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. About 30% of corticospinal neurons origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primary Motor Cortex
The primary motor cortex (Brodmann area 4) is a brain region that in humans is located in the dorsal portion of the frontal lobe. It is the primary region of the motor system and works in association with other motor areas including premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, posterior parietal cortex, and several subcortical brain regions, to plan and execute voluntary movements. Primary motor cortex is defined anatomically as the region of cortex that contains large neurons known as Betz cells, which, along with other cortical neurons, send long axons down the spinal cord to synapse onto the interneuron circuitry of the spinal cord and also directly onto the alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord which connect to the muscles. At the primary motor cortex, motor representation is orderly arranged (in an inverted fashion) from the toe (at the top of the cerebral hemisphere) to mouth (at the bottom) along a fold in the cortex called the central sulcus. However, some body parts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brodmann Area 4
Brodmann area 4 refers to the primary motor cortex of the human brain. It is located in the posterior portion of the frontal lobe. Brodmann area 4 is part of the precentral gyrus. The borders of this area are: the precentral sulcus in front ( anteriorly), the medial longitudinal fissure at the top ( medially), the central sulcus in back (posteriorly), and the lateral sulcus along the bottom (laterally). This area of cortex, as shown by Wilder Penfield and others, has the pattern of a homunculus. That is, the legs and trunk fold over the midline; the arms and hands are along the middle of the area shown here; and the face is near the bottom of the figure. Because Brodmann area 4 is in the same general location as primary motor cortex, the homunculus here is called the motor homunculus. The term area 4 of Brodmann-1909 refers to a cytoarchitecturally defined portion of the frontal lobe of the guenon. It is located predominantly in the precentral gyrus. Brodmann-1909 rega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upper Motor Neuron
Upper motor neurons (UMNs) is a term introduced by William Gowers in 1886. They are found in the cerebral cortex and brainstem and carry information down to activate interneurons and lower motor neurons, which in turn directly signal muscles to contract or relax. UMNs in the cerebral cortex are the main source of voluntary movement. They are the larger pyramidal cells in the cerebral cortex. There is a type of giant pyramidal cell called ''Betz cells'' and are found just below the surface of the cerebral cortex within layer V of the primary motor cortex. The cell bodies of Betz cell neurons are the largest in the brain, approaching nearly 0.1 mm in diameter. The primary motor cortex, or precentral gyrus, is the most posterior gyrus of the frontal lobe and lies anterior to the central sulcus. The pyramidal cells of the precentral gyrus are also called upper motor neurons. The fibers of the upper motor neurons project out of the precentral gyrus ending in the brainstem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motor Neuron
A motor neuron (or motoneuron or efferent neuron) is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly or indirectly control effector organs, mainly muscles and glands. There are two types of motor neuron – upper motor neurons and lower motor neurons. Axons from upper motor neurons synapse onto interneurons in the spinal cord and occasionally directly onto lower motor neurons. The axons from the lower motor neurons are efferent nerve fibers that carry signals from the spinal cord to the effectors. Types of lower motor neurons are alpha motor neurons, beta motor neurons, and gamma motor neurons. A single motor neuron may innervate many muscle fibres and a muscle fibre can undergo many action potentials in the time taken for a single muscle twitch. Innervation takes place at a neuromuscular junction and twitches can become superimposed as a resu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life forms. Every cell consists of a cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, and contains many biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as many small molecules of nutrients and metabolites.Cell Movements and the Shaping of the Vertebrate Body in Chapter 21 of Molecular Biology of the Cell '' fourth edition, edited by Bruce Alberts (2002) published by Garland Science. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos. It is also common to describe small molecules such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nerve Signal
An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, called excitable cells, which include neurons, muscle cells, and in some plant cells. Certain endocrine cells such as pancreatic beta cells, and certain cells of the anterior pituitary gland are also excitable cells. In neurons, action potentials play a central role in cell-cell communication by providing for—or with regard to saltatory conduction, assisting—the propagation of signals along the neuron's axon toward synaptic boutons situated at the ends of an axon; these signals can then connect with other neurons at synapses, or to motor cells or glands. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reflex Arc
A reflex arc is a neural pathway that controls a reflex. In vertebrates, most sensory neurons do not pass directly into the brain, but synapse in the spinal cord. This allows for faster reflex actions to occur by activating spinal motor neurons without the delay of routing signals through the brain. The brain will receive the input while the reflex is being carried out and the analysis of the signal takes place after the reflex action. There are two types: autonomic reflex arc (affecting inner organs) and somatic reflex arc (affecting muscles). Autonomic reflexes sometimes involve the spinal cord and some somatic reflexes are mediated more by the brain than the spinal cord. During a somatic reflex, nerve signals travel along the following pathway: # ''Somatic receptors'' in the skin, muscles and tendons # ''Afferent nerve fibers'' carry signals from the somatic receptors to the posterior horn of the spinal cord or to the brainstem # An ''integrating center'', the point at which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voluntary Muscle
Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle tissue, and are often known as muscle fibers. The muscle tissue of a skeletal muscle is striated – having a striped appearance due to the arrangement of the sarcomeres. Skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles under the control of the somatic nervous system. The other types of muscle are cardiac muscle which is also striated and smooth muscle which is non-striated; both of these types of muscle tissue are classified as involuntary, or, under the control of the autonomic nervous system. A skeletal muscle contains multiple fascicles – bundles of muscle fibers. Each individual fiber, and each muscle is surrounded by a type of connective tissue layer of fascia. Muscle fibers are formed from the fusion of developmental myoblasts in a proc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
