PSYCO275 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Periaqueductal Gray, Spinal Cord Injury, Superior Colliculus

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCO275
• Professor: Clayton Dickson

Document Summary

We can no longer feel sensations, or move anything below that injury. Spinal cords have circuits that can move on their own. Aka sets of circuits that will move the leg without any information going to your brain. Reflexes are automatic responses that are hard to inhibit by the brain: spinal cord connect into into the brainstem. It is divided into these three regions (hindbrain, midbrain, diencephalon): hindbrain is what we share in common with crocodile, lizards and worms. The medulla is the closest structure to the spinal cord. The hindbrain controls motor functions, and keeps us breathing. If you take certain drugs it can affect certain parts like the medulla. Your breathing gets repressed (when you overdose), you can"t breathe anymore because it can inhibit breathing in the medulla: the hindbrain integrates both voluntary and involuntary responses like yawning. It contains the cerebellum, the reticular formation, the pons and the medulla.