Research Assessment #6

Maleeha Khan

Date: ​October 25, 2019

Subject: ​Nervous System: Anatomy and Physiology

Sources:

Green, Hank. “The Nervous System, Part 1: Crash Course A&P #8.” ​Youtube,​ Crash Course.

youtube.com/watch?v=qPix_X-9t7E.

Research:

In order to enhance my understanding of my recent research exploring several diseases

such as Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. I am refreshing my knowledge of the

anatomy and physiology of the nervous system by watching a video series on this body system

created by Crash Course. The creator of the course explains this complex content through several

engaging methods. From my research, I learned of the three principal functions of the nervous

system and structure of neurons and glial cells. It is vital that I review these concepts, as I plan to

expand upon my understanding of the nervous system by applying these concepts in my

Independent Study. Furthermore, I have noticed that there is not a lot of information about

common disorders neurologists treat in regards to potential treatments and causes. By applying

these basic concepts of the nervous system, I can build a better understanding of the exact

processes that are occuring that cause these diseases to develop.

The fundamental principles of the nervous system include sensory input, integration, and

motor output. The first component, sensory input, consists of how the human body processes

messages from receptors. These mainly involve our five senses; sight, sound, smell, touch, and
hearing. Through integration, these messages are processed by the nervous system, which

initiates an appropriate response to the input. These responses are activated by motor output,

which direct specific parts of the body. It is fascinating to see how these components work in

conjunction to provide us with the ability to carry out everyday tasks. I have developed a new

level of interest and admiration for these principles, as without this process, it would be

impossible to function at a basic level.

To further understand how this complex process is carried out, I studied the structure of

neurons and glial cells. Although I am very familiar with the anatomy and physiology of

neurons, which respond to stimuli and transmit signals. I was previously unaware of the

significance of glial cells, which surround neurons. These cells come in several forms and

provide support, nutrition, insulation, and help with signal transmission in the nervous system.

Interestingly, glial cells outnumber neurons ten to one. I had never previously realized the wide

variety of functions of these cells and the abundance of them in the nervous system. I plan to

apply this knowledge I have gained about the structure of these cells, as I begin to closely

analyze disorders treated by neurologists.

The knowledge I have gained from this research will prove to be crucial in my

independent study this year. As I hope to apply these concepts to my mentor meetings and

subsequent research about the field. I plan to further expand my understanding of neuroanatomy

by watching similar videos and reading articles.

Video Notes:

Nervous System: Controls our organs, physiological and psychological reactions, endocrine

system.

- Importance of the neural system can not be overemphasized

Three Principal Functions of the Nervous System:

1. Sensory Input (Ex. Spider on your skin, sensory receptors detect the spiders legs on your

skin)

2. Integration: Nervous system processes that information and decies what should be done

about it

3. Motor Output: Response that occurs when your nervous system activates certain parts of

your body (Ex. Hand lashing out to move the spider)

Organization of the Nervous System:

- Central Nervous System (Brain and Spinal Cord) - Main control center

- Interneurons (Association Neurons) Transmit impulses between sensory and

motor neurons

- Peripheral Nervous System: Composed of all the nerves that branch off from the brain

and spine that allow your central nervous system to communicate with the rest of your

body (Works in both directions).

- Sensory (afferent division) Transmit impulses from sensory receptors ​toward ​the

CNS

- Motor (efferent division) Transmit impulses from the CNS to the rest of the body

(muscles and glands)

 - Somatic (Voluntary) Nervous System: Skeletal Muscle Movement

- Autonomic (Involuntary) Nervous System:

- Heart Beating, Lungs Breathing, and Stomach Churning

- Complementary Forces of the autonomic system

- Sympathetic Division: Mobilizes the body into

action

- Parasympathetic Division: Relaxes the body and

talks it down

Neurons: Respond to stimuli and transmit signals

Important Information About the Nervous System:

1. Neurons are some of the longest-lived cells in your body

2. Neurons are irreplaceable

a. Most are amitotic, making them unable to divide after taking on given roles

3. Have high metabolic rate, as a result, they need a steady and abundant supply or glucose

and oxygen

a. About 25% of your daily calorie intake is consumed by your brains activity

Glilal Cells: provide support, nutrition, insulation, and help with signal transmission in the

nervous system (These cells are very plentiful in the nervous system)

- Central Nervous System:

- Astrocytes: Support, regulate ions

- Anchor Neurons to their blood supply and govern the exchange of

materials between neurons and capillaries

 - Microglial Cells: Defend

- Main source of immune defense against invading microorganisms in the

brain and spinal cord

- Ependymal Cells: Line Cavities

- Create, secrete, and circulate cerebrospinal fluid that fills these cavities

and cushions organs

- Oligodendrocytes: Wrap and Insulate. Form Myelin Sheath (​Connection: ​Damage

to the Myelin causes MS)

- Wrap around neurons, producing the myelin sheath (Insulating barrier)

- Peripheral Nervous System:

- Satellite Cells: Surround and support Neuron cell bodies

- Schwann Cells: Insulate, help form the insulating Myelin Sheath

Transcript:

00:00-00:03:This morning was a typical morning for me. I woke up thinking about that

dream that I

00:04-00:07: keep having about the guy in the sloth suit, and then I got dressed because I

was cold, and then I made some toast with butter ‘cause I was hungry, and then I let the dog

out ‘cause

00:07-00:11: she was whining and staring and me, and then I made some tea but I let it cool

off before

00:12-00:14: I drank it because I burned my mouth yesterday.

00:15-00:21: In addition to being just part of my morning ritual, all of these actions are

examples of what my nervous system does for me.

00:22-00:31: The weirdo dream, the sensation of cold air and hot tea, deciding what to put

on the toast, going to the door at the sound of the dog -- all that was processed and executed

by ​electrical and chemical signals to and from nerve cells​.

00:32-00:38: You can’t oversell the importance of the nervous system.

00:39-0:40: It controls ALL THE THINGS!

00:41-00:49: ​All your organs, all your physiological and psychological reactions, even your

body’s other major controlling force, the endocrine system​, bows down before the nervous

system.

00:50-00:57 There is no “you” without it. There is no “me” without it. There’s no dogs

without it. There’s no animals. There’s no things.

00:58-01:06 It’s important. That’s why we’re dedicating the next several episodes to the

fundamentals of the nervous system -- its anatomy and organization, how it communicates,

and what happens when it gets damaged.

01:07-01:18: This is mission control, people!

01:19-01:26: Even though pretty much all animals -- except super simple ones like sponges

-- have a nervous system, ours is probably the most distinctive feature of our species.

01:27-01:39: From writing novels, to debating time travel, to juggling knives -- all of your

thoughts and actions, and emotions can be boiled down into ​three principal functions --

sensory input, integration, and motor output.

01:40-01:41: Imagine a spider walking onto your bare knee.

01:42-01:47: The ​sensory receptors​ on your skin detect those eight little legs -- that

information is your sensory input.

01:48-02:00: From there your ​nervous system processes that input, and decides what should

be done about it​. That’s called ​integration​ -- like, should I be all zen about it and just let it

walk over me, or should I not be zen and freak out and run around screaming, “SPIDER!”?

02:01-02:10: Your hand lashing out to remove the spider, and maybe your accompanying

banshee scream is the​ motor output -- the response that occurs when your nervous system

activates certain parts of your body.

02:11-02:16: As you can imagine, it takes a highly integrated system to detect, process, and

act on data like this, all the time.

02:17-02:24: And when we talk about the nervous system, we’re really talking about several

levels of organization, starting with two main parts: the central and peripheral nervous

systems.

02:25-02:32 The ​central nervous system is your brain and spinal cord​ -- the main control

center. It’s what decided to remove the spider, and gave the order to your hand.

02:33-02:40: Your ​peripheral system is composed of all the nerves that branch off from the

brain and spine​ that​ allow your central nervous system to communicate​ with the rest of your

body.

02:40-02:51: And since its job is communication, your​ peripheral system ​is set up to work in

both directions​: The sensory, or afferent division is what picks up sensory stimuli -- like,

“hey, there’s an arachnid on you” -- and slings that information to the brain.

02:52-03:00: Your motor, or efferent division is the part that sends directions from your

brain to the muscles and glands -- like, “hey hand part, how ‘bout you do something about

that spider”.

03:01-03:10: The ​motor division also includes the somatic, or voluntary nervous system,​ that

rules your skeletal muscle movement, and the ​autonomic, or involuntary nervous system,

that keeps your heart beating, and your lungs breathing, and your stomach churning.

03:11-03:20: And finally, that autonomic system, too, has its own complementary forces. Its

sympathetic division mobilizes the body into action and gets it all fired up, like “Gah!

SPIDER!”

03:21-03:26: -- while the parasympathetic division relaxes the body and talks it down…

Like, “it wasn’t a black widow or anything; you’re fine, breathe!”

03:27-03:36: So that’s the organization of your nervous system in a nutshell. But no matter

what part you’re talking about, they’re all made up of mainly nervous tissue, which you’ll

remember is densely packed with cells.

03:36-03:41: Maybe less than 20 percent of that tissue consists of extracellular space.

Everything else? Cells.

03:42-03:51: The type of cells you’ve most likely heard of are the neurons, or ​nerve cells,

which respond to stimuli and transmit signals​. These cells get all the publicity -- they’re the

ones that we’re always thanking every time we ace an exam or think up a snappy comeback

to an argument.

03:52-04:03: But these wise guys really account for just a small part of your nervous tissue

because they are​ surrounded and protected by gaggles of neuroglia, or glial cells.

04:04-04:18: Once considered just the scaffolding or glue that held neurons together, we

now know that our different glial cell types serve many other important functions, and they

make up about​ half of the mass of your brain​, outnumbering their neuron colleagues by

about 10 to 1.

04:19-04:29: Star-shaped astrocytes are found in your central nervous system and are your

most abundant and versatile glial cells. They anchor neurons to their blood supply, and

govern the exchange of materials between neurons and capillaries.

04:30-04:40: Also in your central nervous system are your protective microglial cells --

they’re smaller and kinda thorny-looking, and act as the main source of immune defense

against invading microorganisms in the brain and spinal cord.

04:41-04:48: Your ependymal cells line cavities in your brain and spinal cord and create,

secrete, and circulate cerebrospinal fluid that fills those cavities and cushions those organs.

04:49-04:56: And finally your central nervous system’s oligodendrocytes wrap around

neurons, producing an insulating barrier called the myelin sheath.

04:57-05:14: Now, over in your peripheral nervous system, there are just two kinds of glial

cells. Satellite cells do mainly in the peripheral system what astrocyte cells do in the central

system -- they surround and support neuron cell bodies. While Schwann cells are similar to

your oligodendrocytes, in that they wrap around axons and make that insulating myelin

sheath.

05:15-05:32: So don’t sell your glial cells short -- they’re in the majority, cell-wise. But of

course when it comes to passing tests and winning arguments, most of the heavy lifting is

done by the neurons. And they’re not all the same -- they’re actually ​highly specialized,

coming in all shapes and sizes​ -- from tiny ones in your brain to the ones that run the entire

length of your leg.

05:33-05:35: But they do all share three super-cool things in common.

05:36-05:49: ​Number 1. They’re some of the longest-lived cells in your body.​ There’s a lot

of debate right now about whether you’re actually​ born with all of the neurons you’ll ever

have​, but some research suggests that, at least in your brain’s cerebral cortex, your neurons

will live as long as you do.

05:49-06:04: Cool fact number 2. ​They are irreplaceable​. It’s a good thing that they have

such ​longevity​, because your neurons aren’t like your constantly- renewing skin cells. Most
neurons are ​amitotic, so once they take on their given roles in the nervous system, they lose

their ability to divide​. So take care of ‘em!

06:05-06:21: And ​number 3​. They have huge appetites. Like a soccer-playing teenager,

neurons have a crazy-high metabolic rate. They ​need a steady and abundant supply of

glucose and oxygen,​ and about ​25 percent of the calories that you take in every day are

consumed by your brain’s activity​.

06:22-06:25: Along with all these wonderful qualities, your neurons also share the same

basic structure.

06:26-06:33: The ​soma, or cell body, is the neuron’s life support.​ It’s got all the normal cell

goodies like a nucleus, and DNA, mitochondria, ribosomes, cytoplasm.

06:34-06:43: The bushy, branch-like things projecting out from the soma are dendrites.

They’re the listeners -- they pick up messages, news, gossip from other cells and convey that

information to the cell body.

06:44-07:00: The​ neuron’s axon,​ meanwhile, is like the talker. This long extension, or fiber,

can be super short, or run a full meter from your spine down to your ankle. We’ve got a few

different axon layouts in our body, but in the most abundant type of neuron, the axons

transmit electrical impulses away from the cell body to other cells.

07:01-07:04: For us students of biology, it’s a good thing that nerve cells aren’t all identical.

07:05-07:08: Because their differences in structure are one of the ways that we tell them

apart, and classify them.

07:09-07:17: The main feature we look at is how many processes extend out from the cell

body. A “process” in this case being a projecting part of an organic structure.

07:18-07:25: ​99 percent of all your neurons are multipolar neurons,​ with three or more

processes sticking out from the soma -- including one axon, and a bunch of dendrites.

07:26-07:36: Bipolar neurons have two processes -- an axon and a single dendrite --

extending from opposite sides of the cell body. They’re pretty rare, found only in a few

special sensory places, like the retina of your eye.

07:37-07:41: Unipolar neurons, on the other hand, have just one process, and are found

mostly in your sensory receptors.

07:42-07:47: So, if you ever find yourself probing around someone’s nervous tissue,

remember these three terms to help you figure out what you’re looking at.

07:48-07:58: But because we’re talking physiology here as well as anatomy, we have to

classify these cells in terms of their function, and that basically comes down to ​which way

an impulse travels through a neuron in relation to the brain and spine.

07:59-08:08: Our sensory, or ​afferent, neurons pick up messages and transmit impulses from

sensory receptors in the skin or internal organs, and send them toward the central nervous

system.

08:09-08:10: Most sensory neurons are unipolar.

08:11-08:19: ​Motor, or efferent​, neurons do the opposite -- they’re mostly multipolar, and

transmit impulses away from the central nervous system​ and out to your body’s muscles and

glands.

08:20-08:31: And then there are​ interneurons, or association neurons, which live in the

central nervous system and transmit impulses between sensory and motor neurons.

Interneurons are the most abundant of your body’s neurons and are mostly multipolar.
08:31-08:37: OK! It’s applied knowledge time! Let’s review everything we’ve learned so far

in terms of that spider on your knee.

08:38-08:52: Those eight creeping legs first activate your unipolar sensory neurons in the

skin on your knee, when they sense something crawling on you. The signal travels up an

axon wrapped in Schwann cells and into your spinal cord, where it gets passed on to several

multipolar interneurons.

08:52-09:02: Now, some of those interneurons might send a signal straight down a bunch of

multipolar neurons to your quadriceps muscle on your thigh, triggering you to kick your leg

out before you even know what’s going on.

09:03-09:06: Other interneurons will pass that signal to neurons that carry it up your spinal

cord to your brain.

09:07-09:21: That’s where your body first recognizes that thing as a spider, and the

connections between neurons interpret and split the signal ​so that you can either scream, and

start swinging your arms wildly about...or...remain calm, and with dignity remove the spider

from your person.

09:22-09:33: It’s all based on the connections between neurons. Which brings me to a whole

new question: How? How in the name of Jean-Martin Charcot do nerve cells use chemistry

and electricity to communicate with each other?

09:34-09:41: It’s one of the most stupefyingly awesome and complicated aspects of your

nervous system, and basically of all life and it is what we will cover in our next lesson.

09:42-09:55: Today you learned how sensory input, integration, and motor output of your

nervous system basically rules your world. We talked about how the central and peripheral
systems are organized, and what they do, and looked at the role of different glial cells in

nervous tissue function.

09:56-10:05: We also looked at the role, anatomy, and function of neuron types in the body,

both structurally and functionally, and how everything plays out when you find a spider

crawling on your skin.

10:06-10:22: Thank you for watching, especially to all of our Subbable subscribers, who

make Crash Course possible for themselves and for the whole rest of the world. To find out

how you can become a supporter, just go to subbable.com. This episode was written by

Kathleen Yale, the script was edited by Blake de Pastino, and our consultant is Dr. Brandon

Jackson. It was directed by Nicholas Jenkins and Michael Aranda, and our graphics team is

Thought Café.