Week 6

This week we finished talking about the Autonomic nervous system or ANS and then went into our special senses. As you may know our special senses includes: taste, smell, sight, and hearing. We focused on learning the eye this week. The eye is an amazing sense, without it we would not be able to see all the wonderful things around us. The eye consist of the eyelashes, pupil, iris, lateral and medial commissure. Let's break this down a little. The eyelashes have glands that coats the lashes to keep the eyelashes from sticking and keeping dirt from coming into the eye. The pupil looks black but it is actually a hole. When your pupils constrict, this allows less light to enter the eye and when your pupils dilate, more light enters. There are three layers to the eye, including: the retina (inner layer), choroid, and the sclera (outer layer).

Cataracts is a problem people tend to have as they get older. Cataracts is caused when the fibers in the eye start to harden and the protein that usually helps to repair the eye has a hard time getting in the eye to do this. This results in a lens that becomes cloudy and hard to see through.

Week 5

This week we went over the cranial nerves and how the autonomic nervous system is broken down into the parasympathetic and the sympathetic. There are 12 cranial nerves and each have its own function.

Cranial Nerves:

1. Olfactory is for smell and is a sensory nerve

2. Optic is for vision and is also a sensory nerve

3. Ocukomotor controls eye movement and pupil constriction. This is a mixed nerve.

4. Trochlear also controls eye movement

5. Trigeminal controls the face, teeth, and chewing

6. abducens controls eye movement and is a motor nerve.

7. facial nerve controls pressure and facial expression.

8. Vestubulo-cochlear controls hearing and balence

9. Glosso=pharyngeal, containing swallowing muscles

10. Vagus controls sensation from ear canal, diaphargm, and chest

11. axxessory contains muscles of palate, neck, and some shoulder muscles

12. Hypoglossal controls tongue movement.



Next week we have break. I will take this time and start preparing for our next class.

Week 4

This week we reviewed mostly on the first meeting over the circle of Willis and CSF circulation. Then the next class we had a different professor. It's funny how you get so used to one professor all the time, when another one comes along, how different they teach. Anyway, we covered the peripheral nervous system. This is divided into somatic and autonomic divisions. The somatic division regulates voluntary skeletal muscle. The autonomic division deals with the glands and smooth muscle. Then we went over the cranial nerves There are twelve pairs of nerves: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulo-cochlear, glosso-pharyngeal, vagus, accessory, and hypoglossal. They each have there own functions.

This relates to everyday living for people who have a disorder or disease relating to the nervous system. For example, someone who has Parkinson's disease or Paralysis.

Week 3

This week we had our first quiz. Because of our quiz we did not get as much lecture time as usual. I liked this lecture better than the past few because it was a faster pace and we covered more. This week we started going over the brain. Starting to cover the mennges, CSF circulation, blood flow, and the anatomy of the brain. We went through the circulatory pathway and the circle of Willis. You can find these on pages 774 and 758. The wrapping around the brain is two layers thick and the wrapping around the spinal cord is only one layer thick. This is what we went over for the brain so far.

This week in lab I was able to see a sheep brain and the inside of it. This helped having the hands on experience before talking about it in lecture. It is still early in the chapter but having hands on the brain before lecture helped understand the midbrain and hindbrain better.

Week 1 and 2

The past two weeks we have been talking about the nervous system. The nervous system is separated into two categories: the central nervous system (CNS)and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The central nervous system consist of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system includes all the nervous tissue outside the CNS. There are both similarities and differences to chemically and voltage regulated ion channels. They are both unique shaped and change shape allowing ions to move across the plasma membrane. The chemically regulated ion channels change by binding to a chemical whereas voltage ion channels change shape because of the electrical charge.

When learning about the nervous system I was unsure of the diseases related to this system until the last class we had. This is when we mentioned Alzheimer's Disease and how it related. I work with Alzheimer's patients on a regular basis so I see how they decline but I did not realize why they declined in the way they did until the other day. It is very interesting once you understand how the disease works.