HES 319 Lecture Notes - Posterior Grey Column, White Matter, Thalamus
Document Summary
Includes capillaries (dedicated blood supply, vaso nervorum, provide blood, oxygen, nutrients, throughout nerve), diverse packages of nerves. Larger nerves higher conduction velocity, faster action potential. Different brain areas carry out very specific functions. The different areas are interconnected, via specific pathways, in an exquisitely complex fashion. Different areas of the body are represented (mapped out, or topographically represented) on the surface of the brain in a similar fashion between individuals. The amount of brain surface devoted to a body part primarily depends on the number and density of sensory receptors or motor neurons in the body part. Uncontrolled (spontaneous) excitation starting in one part of the brain, travels across surface of brain like wave. Realized body parts have corresponding organization in brain. Experiments micro stimulation to brain part, record what part of body responds. Efferent and afferent signals are sent into and out of the brain via the spinal cord.
