The students in anatomy class were having difficulty understanding what kind of cell bodies are located in the autonomic ganglia. Frustrated by being asked this same question repeatedly, the exasperated teaching assistant stood on a desk and yelled, “Autonomic ganglia always contain the postganglionic cell bodies!” Describe how that information enabled the students to work out which type of neuron has cell bodies in the
head ganglia (ciliary, pterygopalatine, submandibular, and otic)

What manifestations of decreased ANS efficiency are seen in elderly people?

Which embryonic tissue forms the postganglionic neurons of the ANS?

A friend asks you how the parasympathetic division, which comes only from cranial and sacral regions, is able to innervate organs in the thorax and abdomen. How would you answer that question?

Which region of the CNS is the main control center for the ANS?

Which of the effects listed in question 11 would be reversed by parasympathetic activity?

What is a peripheral reflex, and how does it differ from a spinal reflex?

Via which pathway do most visceral pain fibers travel to reach the CNS?

What effect does sympathetic activation have on each of the following structures? Sweat glands, pupils of the eye, adrenal medulla, heart, lungs, blood vessels of skeletal muscles, blood vessels of digestive viscera, salivary glands

Why are gray rami communicantes gray?

Describe the anatomical relationship of the white and gray rami communicantes to a spinal nerve, and to the dorsal and ventral rami

Which types of autonomic fibers (preganglionic, postganglionic, sympathetic, parasympathetic) are located in the thoracic and abdominal autonomic plexuses?

A 1-year-old infant has a swollen abdomen and is continually constipated. On examination, a mass is felt over the distal colon, and X-ray findings show the colon to be greatly distended in that region. From the information in this chapter, identify one possible cause for these symptoms

Which of the following does not characterize the ANS? (a) twoneuron motor chains, (b) preganglionic cell bodies in the CNS, (c) presence of postganglionic cell bodies in ganglia, (d) innervation of skeletal muscle