Skyline 100

Meghan Fraley, PhD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXZGFbxkuKs

BASIC NEURO-SCIENCE

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

NEURONS AND NEUROTRANSMITTERS

ENDOCRINE DISORDERS

COGNITIVE DISORDERS

SPECAIL TOPICS

PSCYHO-PHARMA-COLOGY

ANTIPSYCHOTICS

ANTIDEPRESSANTS

BENZODIAZEPINES

MOOD STABILIZERS

STIMULANTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUGuWh2UeMk

Neurons release neurotransmitters to communicate

• Receive information by capturing neurotransmitters released in the synaptic cleft

1) Dendrites:

• Integrates information from the dendrites. Contains the nucleus and controls hereditary characteristics

2) The cell body or soma:

• tube-like structure that transmits information

3) Axon:

Fatty substance acts as an insulator

Speeds up conduction

Glial cellsHold neurons

together

Provide neuron with

nutrients

Remove cellular debris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4PPZCLnVkA

Negative resting state

Potassium and Sodium ions switchplaces which releases neurotransmitters at the synaptic cleft

All or none principle: If sufficiently stimulated, will fire to its full extent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDMwpVUhxAo

Dived into two categories: Classical neurotransmitters Peptide neurotransmitters

Substances that impact NT: Agonist: enhances effect of NT Antagonist: inhibits effect of

NT

Action Potential categories: Excitatory: Acetylcholine,

norepinephrine increase likelihood of action potential

Inhibitory: GABA, endorphin decrease likelihood of action potential

Neurotransmitter Function Problems with Excess or Deficit

Acetylcholine Motor Movement Lack: Alzheimer’s

Dopamine Motor movement and alertness

Lack: Parkinson’sExcess: Schizophrenia

Endorphins Pain control Addictions

Serotonin Mood control Lack: Depression

GABA Inhibitory Seizures; Sleep problems

Glutamate Excitatory and memory Migraines; Seizures

Norepinephrine Alertness and arousal Depression

Acetylcholine

Catecholamines Dopamine

Norepinephrine

Serotonin

The Amino Acids

The PeptideNeurotransmitters

Most common

Voluntary movement

Memory and Cognition

Deficiency Alzheimer’s

Myasthenia gravis: autoimmune disorder attacks Ach recepturos

Deficiency Alzheimer’s Degeneration of Ach cells

believed to underlie memory deficits in Alzheimers

Cholinesterase inhibitors slow memory declines

Synthesized from tyrosine and phenylalanine

Norepinephrine

• Involved in mood

• Pain perception

• Sleep

• Deficiency Depression

• Excess Mania

Dopamine

• Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia: excess dopamine caueses schizophrenia

• Less dopamine because of SubstantiaNigra damage Parkinson’s

• Antipsychotics are dopamine antagonists

Forms of depression due to lower than normal levels of norepinephrine

Correlates of Serotonin: Involved with mood disorders Aggression Sexual activity Sleep onset Pain perception Possibly schizophrenia

Permissive Hypothesis of Serotonin Functioning 1) Deficiency in serotonin is necessary for a mood

disorder 2) Norepinephrine determines whether mood disorder is

mania (too much NE) or depression (too little NE

Elevated: Schizophrenia Autistic Disorder Food Restriction with

Anorexia

Low: Depression Aggression Suicide Bulimia PTSD OCD

Abnormal: Social Phobia

GABA, Glycine and Glutamate

Gaba: Majory inhibitory

neurotransmitters in the CNS, Calming effect Benzodiazepines are GABA

agonists

Glutamate Mediator of fast excitatory

synaptic transmission Abnormal glutamate transmission

is suspected in Schizophrenia

Excitatory

Long-term potentiation

Excessive can lead to seizures and may contribute to stroke related brain damage, huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, other neurodegenerative disorders

Dozens of them consisting of long chains of amino acids

Enkephalins and Endorphins also known as endogenous opioids, regulate stress and pain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz5PvtSso6M

All behavior results from activity in the cells of the nervous system

Two divisions: Central nervous

system

Peripheral nervous system

The Somatic Nervous System

Autonomic Nervous System Sympathetic

Parasympathetic

12 Pairs cranial nerves, 31 sets of sensory and motor nerves

Sends and receives sensory messages that control voluntary motor movement of the skeletal muscles

ANS Functions: Smooth muscles Digestion Heart rate Breathing

Sympathetic: Mobilizing Fight or flight

Parasympathetic Energy

conserving Decreases

arousal

Sympathetic Arousal and expenditure of

energy

External threat

Fight or flight

Parasympathetic Conservation of energy

Rest/relaxation

Meditation, hypnosis, biofeedback

Can work together, not just in opposition!

Spinal cord and brain

Sensory neurons carry info to CNS

Motor neurons carry info away from CNS to muscles and glands

Brain and Spinal Cord

Spinal Cord

Hindbrain or Brain Stem

Midbrain & Thalamus

Forebrain

Cerebral Cortext

Lateralization

Left Hemisphere

Right Hemisphere

Contralateral Control

Quadraiplegia: all four limbs

Paraplegia: paralysis in legs

Paresis: muscle weakness

Bundles of myelinated axons

Damage can impact mobility

Total versus partial severing

Reflexes stay in tact

Still can have erection

1. Spinal X-ray

2. MRI

3. CT with myelogram

w/ EMG

w/ SSEP

EEG: Detects brain waves; sleep research

CAT Scan: View brain structure, 3-D picture,

sophisticated X-Ray

PET scan: Measures chemicals (aka) glucose;

functional capacity of brain

MRI: radio waves to see structures

fMRI: Cobmines MRI and PET scan; details of structure and activity

Control center for most voluntary and involuntary behavior

Control center for all voluntary and most involuntary behavior

Brain Areas: Cerebrum

Cerebellum

Brain Stem

Brain Divisions: Forebrain

Midbrain

Hindbrain

Medulla

Pons

Cerebellum

Life support system

Second largest structure

Coordinates habitual muscle movements

Tracking target with eyes

Playing saxophone

Excitatory inputs for maintaining smooth movement and coordinating motor activity

Ataxia: lack of coordination

Most primitive part

Pons:

• Sleep

• Respiration

• Movement

• Cardiovascular activity

• Facial expressions

Medulla

• Blood pressure

• Heart rate

• Breathing

Damage to medulla & Pons

• Failure can lead to death and loss of bodily functions

Smallest region of the brain

Relay station for auditory and visual information.

The Functions:

• Visual and auditory systems

• eye movement.

Parts of Midbrain

• Red nucleus: Control of body movement

• Superior and Inferior Coliculus

• Motor nucleus

• Substantia nigra:

• Control of body movement.

• Large number of dopamine-producing neurons

• The degeneration of neurons in the substantia nigra is associated with Parkinson’s disease.

Routes for visual and auditory information

Extends from spinal cord through hypothalamus to forebrain

Awareness, attention and sleep

Part of reticular formation that projects to the thalamus, Reticular activating system involved in sleep-wake cycle, wake you up

Damage: disrupt sleep, permanentn coma-like sleep

Anesthetics deactivate the neurons

Die

nce

ph

alo

n

thalamus

hypothalamus

subthalamus

epithalamus

pretectum

endbrain (cerebrum)

cerebral cortex

underlying white matter

basal ganglia

Tucked into the center of the brain

Our primitive brain

Within the cerebrum, system of various structures in forebrain

Emotions

Basic drives

Learning

Influence autonomic nervous system and endocrine system

Sensory relay center

Sensory signals come from up the spinal cord and are sent to appropriate areas in rest of forebrain

Wernicke-KorsakoffSyndrome

• Thiamine deficiency

• Atrophy of neurons

• Result of chronic alcoholism

• Begins with Wernicke’s encephalopathy: mental confusion, abnormal eye movements, ataxia

Korsakoff ’s Syndrome

• Severe anterograde, retrograde amnesia

• Confabulation

Hypothalamus regulates Homeostasis

• Metabolic functions: temperature, libido, hunger, thirst, endocrine system

SuprachiasmaticNucleus

• Circadian rhythms

Mamilliary Bodies: Learning and Memory

Fever Feeding Fighting

Falling Asleep Fucking

Mediates sleep-wake

Circadian rhythm

Role in seasonal affective disorder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVrlHH14q3o

Adrenal glands

• Produce adrenaline: prepares body for fight/flight

Ovaries and Testes

• Produce sex hormones

• Estrogen for women

• Testoterone for men

Regulation and coordination of movement

The Basal Ganglia are inhibitory, and put brakes on movement

Basil Ganglia Problems:

Huntington’s:

• Degeneration of caudate nucleus & putamen

• Unwanted thrusting movements

Parkinson’s:

• Loss of dopaminergic neurons in Substantia Nigra

• Tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia

Gives emotional significance to sensory input

Amygdala/Aggression

Kluver-Bucy syndrome if destroyed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSFjGk8RBPw

Removal or Destruction of Amygdala

• Placidity

• Apathy

• Hyperphagia

• Hypersexuality

• Agnosias

Memory

• Consolidation of conscious memories

• If you saw a Hippo on Campus you would remember her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaXNvzE4pk

Surrounds corpus callosum, Attention, emotion,

perception of pain

Anterior cingulate cortex:

transmission of pain

Septal rage syndrome

S in Septum allows you to

Simmer Down

Complex thought, perception and action

Outside surface of brain, Folds (gyri)

Two hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum (thick band of fibers)

Four lobes separated by grooves (sulci)

Left controls right, right controls left side of body

Important distinctions of respective functions

Contralateral representation Left controls right, right

controls left

Except olfactory

Brain lateralization 95-99% of right handed

people are left brained

50-60% of left handed are left brained

Hempisphereicspecialization

j

Left is for Language and Logic

Dominant in 97% of people

Left dominance: Reading

Writing

Speaking

Spelling

Naming

Motor Control

Right is for Intuition, Artistic, Emotions

Dominance: Perceptual Artistic Musical Intuitive Body Image Comprehension of visual,

facial, verbal emotion

Problems: Hemi-neglect, prosopagnosia,

visual-perceptual disturbances, musical agnosia

Affective: Indifference, euphoria, hysteria, impulsivity, abnormal sexual behavior, etc…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo

Bundle of nerve fibers that bridge left and right hemispheres

Split-brain patients

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MKNsI5CWoU

Frontal, Parietal, Temporal, Occipital

Top front of brain

3 main areas Prefrontal cortex

Personality Planning Inhibition

Premotor area Planning movement

Motor area Instigate voluntary

movement

Damage: Loss movement Personality, attention,

thinking problems Inability to express

language (Broca’s aphasia)

Primary motor cortex Precise control

Supplementary motor area Planning and controlling

movement

Premotor cortex Primary motor control

Broca’s: left frontal lobe

Expressive Problem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiduiTq1ei8

Complex Behaviors:

• Emotion

• Memory

• Attention

• Self-awarenss

• Higher-order functions

• Impair problem-solving and creativity but not IQ

Mental disorders:

• Schizophrenia, Dementia, and ADHD

Dorsolateral area:

• Dorsal convexity dysexecutive syndrom: impaired judgment insight, planning

Orbitofrontal area

• Disinhibition syndrome can lead to emotional lability, distractibility, impaired social insight, maybe aggressive outbursts and lewed comments

Mediofrontal area

• Mesial frontal apathetic syndrome, pseudodepression

• Impaired spontaneity, reduce emotional reactions, diminished outbput, bored, dysphoric

Pseudodepression: Medial frontal cortex damage aka mesial frontal apathetic syndrome

Somatosensory Information

Sensory cortex: top receives sensations

from bottom of body and

progresses down

Gerstmann’s syndrome

Right Parietal Lesions

Contralateral neglect

Left Parietal Lesions

Ideational apraxia

Ideomotorapraxia

Gerstmann’ssyndrome

Apraxia

Anosognosia

Primary auditory cortex

• Not lateralized

Connected to limbic system

Emotional behavior

Memory

Wernicke’s area: interprets

speech

Wernicke’s Comprehend Speech Left Hempisphere

Lesions: Auditory agnosia Halluciantions Disturbances in

auditorysensation and perception

Mediates: Encoding, retrieval and

storage of long-term declarative memories

Electrical stimulation can elicit vivid memories that were forgotten

Primary visual cortex, sight, reading and visual images

Primary visual cortex, sight,reading and visual images

Visual cortex

Visual Agnosia Hallucinations, cortical

blindness

Prosopagnosia Inability to recognize familiar

faces

Simultanagnosia Can’t see more than one thing

or aspect of object at a time