Chapter 8: The central nervous system
➢ To understand:
➢ The organization of the nervous system
What is the nervous system composed of?
- The brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves & special sense organs
➢ Important terms used to describe anatomy and function
➢ Basic structures and functions of the CNS components
What is the CNS made up of? And what do they do?
- The brain: controls how we think, learn, move, and feel
- Spinal cord: carries messages back and forth between the brain and the nerves that run throughout the body.
➢ The hemispheres
What are hemispheres divided by?
- The cerebrum is divided into the left and right hemispheres by a deep longitudinal fissure.
What is the left hemisphere of the brain responsible for?
- Left cerebral hemisphere is mostly commonly the dominant hemisphere for fine motor control
- Excels in logical, analytic, sequential and verbal tasks such as math, language forms and philosophy
, What is the right hemisphere of the brain responsible for?
- Excels in non language skills
- Spatial perception and artistic and musical talents
- Facial recognition
➢ Lateralization
What is lateralization?
- Lateralization of the brain hemispheres refers to a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other,
in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function in comparison to the other.
- An example is: language is a heavily lateralized function because certain aspects of language are found to
be localized in the left hemisphere, while others are found in the right, with the left hemisphere most often
dominant
What is the importance of lateralization?
- Researchers studying the human brain have long maintained that the advantage of having a lateralized brain
is increased brain capacity, because lateralization means that neural circuits do not have to be duplicated in
each hemisphere. Each hemisphere can have its own specialized circuits and functions.
➢ Connections
What is the nervous system influenced by?
- Sensation
- Perception
- Learning
- Emotion
- Movement
What does the nervous system control?
- The nervous system has an impact/role on all 11 systems of the body
What is the role of oxygen and glucose?
- Brain is highly dependent on constant blood supply (hence oxygen) to produce ATP
- Brain does not store glucose
- Brain does need glucose though - if there isn’t enough glucose in the brain, for example, neurotransmitters,
the brain’s chemical messengers, are not produced and communication between neurons breaks down.
- In absence of oxygen, damage occurs for about 5-15 minutes
➢ Measurement techniques
➢ Lobes
What are the four lobes of the brain?
1) Occipital lobes: houses visual cortex
2) Temporal lobes: houses auditory cortex
➢ To understand:
➢ The organization of the nervous system
What is the nervous system composed of?
- The brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves & special sense organs
➢ Important terms used to describe anatomy and function
➢ Basic structures and functions of the CNS components
What is the CNS made up of? And what do they do?
- The brain: controls how we think, learn, move, and feel
- Spinal cord: carries messages back and forth between the brain and the nerves that run throughout the body.
➢ The hemispheres
What are hemispheres divided by?
- The cerebrum is divided into the left and right hemispheres by a deep longitudinal fissure.
What is the left hemisphere of the brain responsible for?
- Left cerebral hemisphere is mostly commonly the dominant hemisphere for fine motor control
- Excels in logical, analytic, sequential and verbal tasks such as math, language forms and philosophy
, What is the right hemisphere of the brain responsible for?
- Excels in non language skills
- Spatial perception and artistic and musical talents
- Facial recognition
➢ Lateralization
What is lateralization?
- Lateralization of the brain hemispheres refers to a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other,
in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function in comparison to the other.
- An example is: language is a heavily lateralized function because certain aspects of language are found to
be localized in the left hemisphere, while others are found in the right, with the left hemisphere most often
dominant
What is the importance of lateralization?
- Researchers studying the human brain have long maintained that the advantage of having a lateralized brain
is increased brain capacity, because lateralization means that neural circuits do not have to be duplicated in
each hemisphere. Each hemisphere can have its own specialized circuits and functions.
➢ Connections
What is the nervous system influenced by?
- Sensation
- Perception
- Learning
- Emotion
- Movement
What does the nervous system control?
- The nervous system has an impact/role on all 11 systems of the body
What is the role of oxygen and glucose?
- Brain is highly dependent on constant blood supply (hence oxygen) to produce ATP
- Brain does not store glucose
- Brain does need glucose though - if there isn’t enough glucose in the brain, for example, neurotransmitters,
the brain’s chemical messengers, are not produced and communication between neurons breaks down.
- In absence of oxygen, damage occurs for about 5-15 minutes
➢ Measurement techniques
➢ Lobes
What are the four lobes of the brain?
1) Occipital lobes: houses visual cortex
2) Temporal lobes: houses auditory cortex
