| Term | Definition |
|---|
| spinal cord | receives information from the skin and muscle and sends out motor commands for movement |
| brain stem | upwards extension of the spinal cord; subdivided into three regions: midbrain, pons, medulla. Receives information from the skin and muscles of the head and neck and controls those muscles. Also contains collections of cell bodies of most cranial nerves and is involved in processing the special senses (hearing, vestibular, taste, vision, etc.) |
| cerebellum | important for modulating motor movement together with the basal ganglia |
| basal ganglia | consists of caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus |
| thalamus | a key relay/processing structure for transmitting information about sensation and movement |
| cerebral hemispheres | capped by the cerebral cortex; concerned with higher order perceptual, cognitive, and motor function |
| central nervous system | CNS, a bilateral and symmetrical group of structures, consisting of 6 main parts: spinal cord, brain stem, cerebellum, basil ganglia, thalamus, cerebral hemispheres/cortex |
| dorsal columns | mediated kinesthesia, spatial location of moving structures, and discriminative touch |
| spinothalamic tract | mediates pain, temperature, touch (tactile) |
| spinocerebellar tract | mediates muscle tone and position and joint position |
| primary motor cortex | the anatomical region composed of Area 4 of the precentral gyrus (classic motor cortex) |
| premotor area | PMA, helps to guide body movements by integrating sensory information, and it controls the muscles that are closest to the body's main axis |
| supplementary motor area | SMA, involved in planning complex movements and in coordinating movements involving both hands |
| corticobulbar system of pyramidal tract | Golgi I pyramidal neurons in the motor cortex send their long acons down through internal capsule to synapse in respective motor nucleus of brain-stem: pons/medulla |
| medulla | continuation of the spinal cord in the brain; contains all ascending and descending fiber tracts interconnecting the brain and spinal cord |
| pons | upward continuation of brain stem; contains the same ascending and descending fiber tracts as medulla |
| midbrain | the most anterior extension of the brain stem that still maintains the basic 'tubular' structure of the spinal cord |
| superior colliculus | vision |
| inferior colliculus | hearing |
| extrapyramidal motor system | red nucleus and substantia nigra |
| homunculus | traditional way of illustrating how the surface of the body is represented in the somatosensory cortex |
| sensory-relay nuclei | receive afferent projections from specific sensory systems and in turn project to specific sensory (and motor) regions of the cerebral cortex. LGN projects to primary visual cortex. |
| lateral geniculate nucleus | receives visual signals traveling in the optic tract: fibers direct from retina of the eye as well as from superior colliculus |
| medial geniculate nucleus | receives auditory signals from auditory nerve; prior nuclus of auditory projection system before entering the thalamus is the inverior colliculus. After thalamic processing, the auditory projections terminate in primary auditory cortex, also known as Heschl's gyrus. |
| ventrobasal complex | ventral-posterior lateral and medial; VLP receives all somatosensory projections from medial lemniscus pathway. All somatosensroy afferents form the face travel in vranial nerves and arrive at the VPM for processing. Both project directly to somatosensory post-central gyrus |
| ventral lateral and anterior nuclei | receive inputs from the cerebellum and project their outputs to the precentral gyrus; primarily coordinated motor execution by receiving cerebellar signals that specify activation pattern of pyramidal motor system |
| association nuclei | these do not directly receive specific sensory signals from ascending systems, but rather receive inputs from various sensory-relay nuclei and midbrain systems |
| pulvinar | largest nucleus of thalamus; receives inputs from LGN and MGN, and thus mediates both visual and auditory signals; projects to a widespread region of temporal-parietal cortex; speculated role in language processing |
| dorsomedial | projects to frontal and association cortex |
| posterior and dorsal lateral | project to parietal association cortex, function of the area is not well understood |
| anterior | projects to cingulate gyrus (involved in processing of emotions) |
| intralaminar nucleus | has several roles: one aspect communicates with nuclei making up the basal ganglia (receives globus pallidus projections and sends signals to the caudate and putamen)- extrapyramidal motor system |
| anterograde transport | this procedure traces projections by transporting the radioactive tag chemical from the cell body-down to axon-to terminal fibers |
| retrograde transport | now the radioactive tag chemical is taken up by the terminal fibers and is carried up the axon, to end in the cell body of the neuron |
Combine with other sets
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