Health Sciences 3300A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Autonomic Nervous System, Postganglionic Nerve Fibers, Motor Neuron

• School: Western University
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: Health Sciences 3300A/B
• Professor: Oleksiy Zaika

Document Summary

Parasympathetic division is our resting response and competes with the sympathetic division. The signals that send out sympathetic signals only exit b/w t1-l2 (where lateral horns are located) Uses paravertebral chains to conduct the signals up and down (dedicated chain pathway) Only signals coming out of the cranial nerves and a few nerves in the sacral area conduct sympathetic pathways. Contains a synapse at the ventral horn & the motor nerve goes directly to the muscle that it innervates. The autonomic nervous system uses two neurons. It must have a wide distribution beyond the cns - because of this it needs many neurons which should be placed in the periphery where there is more space. Helps to offset the mass that would otherwise exist in the cns. Preganglionic neuron starts in the cns and exits into the pns and is myelinated. The autonomic ganglion is where the synapse occurs.