CHAPTER ONE

NERVOUS SYSTEM
• Your nervous system consists of many substructures, a
huge number of neurons, and an even huger number of
synapses. How do all the parts work together to make

• one behaving unit? Does each neuron have an

independent function? Or does the brain operate as an
undifferentiated whole?
• The answer is, “something between those extremes.” Consider
an analogy to human
• society: Each individual has a special role, such as teacher,
farmer, or nurse, but no one performs any function without the
cooperation of many other people.

• Similarly, each brain area and each neuron has a specializedrole,

but they also depend on the cooperation of other areas
Central Nervous System (brown)
Brain

Spinal cord
Evolutionary Development
• If you examine the brain in an evolutionary perspective, this
can help to understand the interlinks between form and
function.

• The brain can be divided anatomically and functionally into

three basic components.
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 NERVOUS SYSTEM
• Concern with the integration and control of all bodily functions

• Has specialized in irritability- the ability to receive and respond

to message from the external and internal environments

• Also in conduction-the ability to transmit messages to and from

coordinating centers

• Composed of billions of cells

• Essential being the nerve cells or neurons.

• A typical neuron has all the parts that any cell would have

• Also have few specialized structures that set it apart.

 NERVOUS SYSTEM
• Consist of:

• Central Part (Brain and Spinal Cord)

• Linked by an outlying or

• Peripheral Part-Nerve Fibres -Senssory

• Nerve fibres carry messages from tissues and organs to the brain or spinal cord

• -Motor
• Nerve fibres carry messages to tissue and organ from the brain and spinal cord

• Tissues and Organs of the body

CLASSIFICATION OF NERVOUS
SYSTEM
Neuron
• Soma or cell body, Nucleus

• Several projection called dendrites, that

receive chemical messages from other
neurons.

• Axon, transmit an electro-chemical signals

• Longer axons are usually covered with a

myelin sheath

• As the insulation around electrical wire

neurons.

• Axon ending…….variety of names such as:

• Bouton
• Synaptic knob
• Axon foot
The major components of a typical neuron, including:

-Cell body with the nucleus

t
-Dendrites that receive signals from other neurons

-Axon that relays nerve signals to other neurons at a

specialized structure called a synapse.

When the nerve signal reaches the synapse, it

causes the release of chemical messengers (i.e.,
neurotransmitters) from storage vesicles.
• The neurotransmitters travel across a minute gap
between the cells

• Then interact with protein molecules (i.e., receptors)

located in the membrane surrounding the signal-
receiving neuron.

• This interaction causes biochemical reactions that

result in the generation, or prevention, of a new
nerve signal

• Depending on the type of neuron, neurotransmitter,

and receptor involved
 Types of Neurons
Multipolar neurons

Are so-named because they have many (multi-) processes that

extend from the cell body: lots of dendrites plus a single axon.

Functionally, these neurons are either motor (conducting

impulses that will cause activity such as the contraction of
muscles)

Or association (conducting impulses and permitting

'communication' between neurons within the central nervous
system).
• Unipolar neurons have but one process from the cell
body.

• However, that single, very short, process splits into

longer processes (a dendrite plus an axon). Unipolar
neurons are sensory neurons - conducting impulses
into the central nervous system.
unipolor

• Bipolar neurons have two processes - one axon & one

dendrite. These neurons are also sensory. For example,
bipolar neurons can be found in the retina of the eye.

Bipolor
 Synapse
Between the axon ending of
one neuron and the dendrite of
the next neuron
…… is a very tiny gap called: -
synapse or
-synaptic gap or
-synaptic cleft
 SYNAPSE

• THE SITE OF TRANSMISSION OF NERVE

IMPULSE.

• PRE-SYNAPTIC NEURON:

-WHICH CARRIES AN IMPULSE TOWARDS A

SYNAPSE .

GANGLION

-A KNOT LIKE MASS MADE OF NERVE CELL

BODIES LOCATED OUTSIDE OF CNS.
 SYNAPSE

POST-SYNAPTIC NEURON :

• WHICH CARRIES AN IMPULSE AWAY

FROM A SYNAPSE.

PRE-SYNAPTIC TERMINALS:

• THE ENDS OF AXON, ALSO CALLED

TERMINAL BUTTONS / SYNAPTIC
KNOBS.
 SYNAPTIC CLEFT

• THE TINY SPACE WHERE PRE-

SYNAPTIC TERMINALS ARE
SEPARATED FROM DENDRITES OF
THE POST-SYNAPTIC NEURONE.

• SYNAPTIC TERMINAL :

-TWO IMPORTANT STRUCTURES:

• SYNAPTIC VESICLES :
• CONTAIN NEUROTRANSMITTER,
WHICH WHEN RELEASED INTO
CLEFT EITHER EXCITES OR
INHIBITS THE RECEPTORS OF
POST-SYNAPTIC / TARGET CELLS.
Postsynaptic receptor:
Sensor located on neurons to which
neurotransmitters bind.

A postsynaptic receptor is a sensor on the

surface of a neuron.

It captures messenger molecules from the

nervous system — neurotransmitters

Thereby functions in transmitting

information from one neuron to another.

Each neurotransmitter binds to just one

specially constructed receptor that it
recognizes based on the receptor's overall
structure — like a key within a lock.
 NEURONAL PHYSIOLOGY

• (Neurons are able to respond to stimuli such as:

• Touch
• Sound
• Light
• Conduct impulses
• Communicate with each other (and with other
types of cells like muscle cells).
• Impulse generation takes place according to
the following steps:

• GENERATION OF NERVE IMPULSE (TO ORIGINATE)

take place at receptor site, located on the cell
body & dendrites

• CONDUCTION OF NERVE IMPULSE (TO CONVEY)

passage through the axon away from cell
body towards the axon-endings

• TRANSMISSION OF NERVE IMPULSE (TO PASS

ON / TO ALLOW THE IMPULSE TO PASS THROUGH)
transmission from one neuron (axon–
endings) to another neuron
 THE ACTION POTENTIAL

• Neurotransmitter contact the surface of

dendrite, they change the balance of ions
(electrically charged atoms)

• When this change reaches a threshold level,

this effect runs across the cell's membrane to
the axon.

• When it reaches the axon, it initiates the

action potential.

The surface of the axon contains hundreds of

thousands of miniscule mechanisms called
ion channels.
 THE ACTION
POTENTIAL
• When the charge enters the axon:

• Ion channels at the base of the axon

allow positively charged ions to enter
the axon

• Changing the electrical balance

between inside and outside.

• This causes the next group of ion

channels to do the same

• While other channels return positive

ions to the outside

• So on all the way down the axon.

 THE ACTION POTENTIAL

Ion channel
• Most ion channels simply allow ions to flow in or
out of the cell, these channels as if they were
little holes in the cell membrane.

• If there is too much of a chemical on one side, it

flows to the other, until there's a balance;

• If there are too many positive or negative ions on

one side, they tend to move to the other side,
until there's a balance.
 ACTION POTENTIAL
• Other ion channels are called
pumps. They use energy supplied
by the cell to actually pump ions in
or out of the cell, by force.

• The best examples are the sodium-

potassium pumps on the neuron's
membranes.

• These pumps push sodium

ions(Na+) out of the cell, and
potassium ions (K+) into the cell.

• They are actually maintaining an

imbalance of these chemicals.
 In this little graphic, representing an axon, the red
represents sodium flowing in and the orange represents
the potassium flowing out:

MYELIN SHEATH
The myelin sheath around many axons speeds up this process
considerably:

Instead of one tiny segment triggering action at the very next little
segment, the changes "jump" from one gap in the sheath to the next.

This is called saltatory conduction, from the Latin word for "jump" (also
seen in words like somersault).
 Establishment of the Resting Membrane Potential

• Membranes are polarized or, in other words, exhibit a

RESTING MEMBRANE POTENTIAL.

• This means that there is an unequal distribution of ions (atoms with a

positive or negative charge) on the two sides of the nerve cell
membrane.

• This POTENTIAL generally measures about 70 millivolts (with the

INSIDE of the membrane negative with respect to the outside).

• So, the RESTING MEMBRANE POTENTIAL is expressed as -70 mV, and

the minus means that the inside is negative relative to (or compared
to) the outside.

• It is called a RESTING potential because it occurs when a membrane is

not being stimulated or conducting impulses (in other words, it's
resting).
 What factors contribute to this membrane potential?

• Two ions are responsible: sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+).

• An unequal distribution of these two ions occurs on the two

sides of a nerve cell membrane because carriers actively
transport these two ions:
• sodium from the inside to the outside and potassium from the outside to
the inside.

• AS A RESULT of this active transport mechanism (commonly

referred to as the SODIUM - POTASSIUM PUMP)

• There is a higher concentration of sodium on the outside

than the inside and a higher concentration of potassium on
the inside than the outside
-
 Threshold stimulus & potential

• Action potentials occur only when the membrane in stimulated

(depolarized) enough so that sodium channels open completely.

• The minimum stimulus needed to achieve an action potential is called

the threshold stimulus.

• The threshold stimulus causes the membrane potential to become less

negative (because a stimulus, no matter how small, causes a few sodium
channels to open and allows some positively-charged sodium ions to
diffuse in).

• If the membrane potential reaches the threshold potential (generally 5 -

15 mV less negative than the resting potential), the voltage-regulated
sodium channels all open.

• Sodium ions rapidly diffuse inward, & depolarization occurs.

 All-or-None Law
• Action potentials
occur maximally or not at all. In other
words, there's no such thing as a partial or weak action
potential.

• Either the threshold potential is reached and an action

potential occurs, or it isn't reached and no action potential
occurs.

• Refractory periods:
• ABSOLUTE -
• During an action potential, a second stimulus will not produce a
second action potential (no matter how strong that stimulus is)
• corresponds to the period when the sodium channels are open
(typically just a millisecond or less)