Nerve physiology

First things first

Brain and cranial nerves lab practical
See questions 2 and 3 on study guide 5

The nervous system: What does it do?

Sensory perception of stimuli Integration Motor output
Muscles or glands

How is it organized?

Central nervous system (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord Integrating/command center

Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Nerves extending from brain/spinal cord Links body parts to CNS Spinal nerves: messages to and from spinal cord Cranial nerves: messages to and from brain Split into subdivisions

What are the PNS subdivisions?

Sensory (afferent) division
Information from sensory receptors to CNS Somatic afferent fibers: from skin, skeletal muscle, joints Visceral afferent fibers: from viscera

Motor (efferent) division

From CNS to effector organs, muscles, glands Divided into two main parts

What are the PNS motor subdivisions?

Somatic (voluntary) nervous system
Autonomic (involuntary) nervous system
CNS to skeletal muscles

CNS regulates smooth muscles Two subdivisions

Sympathetic nervous system: fight or flight Parasympathetic nervous system: feed or breed

What types of cells are found in the nervous system?

Neurons: excitable cells Neuroglia: supporting cells (AKA glial cells)
Ten times more common than neurons Four in CNS Two in PNS

What glial cells are in the CNS?

Astrocytes: most abundant

Support/brace neurons exchange with capillaries guide migrating young neurons Clean up K+, neurotransmitters

Microglia: functions as clean-up

Substitute for immune system

What glial cells are in the CNS?

Ependymal cells:
Line central cavities of brain, spinal cord Form permeable barrier for CSF Produce CSF

Oligodendrocytes:
Form myelin sheaths

What glial cells are in the PNS?

Satellite cells: surround neuron somas
Function unknown

Schwann cells: form myelin sheaths

Essential for PNS nerve cell regeneration

Why do PNS neurons regenerate?

Myelin sheaths form regeneration tube
Direct new axon into place CNS neurons dont regenerate

What about neurons?

Long-living Amitotic
Except olfactory and hippocampus (memory) neurons

V. high metabolic rate Bundles of arm-like processes

Tracts in CNS Nerves in PNS

What are a neurons parts?

Cell parts
Soma: all organelles but centrioles
Nissle bodies (rough ER) Nuclei = cluster of cell bodies in skull/cord Ganglia = cluster of cell bodies in PNS

What are a neurons parts?

Dendrites Axon
Axon hillock Axon collaterals (rare, right angle) Terminal branches Synaptic knob, axonal terminals Axoplasm Axolemma

Myelin sheaths

What are myelin sheaths?

Protein-lipid filled cytoplasm of Schwann cells
Neurilemma: outermost part w/nucleus and cytoplasm Myelin sheath: inner layers of PM

Protects/insulates axon (never dendrites)

Allow for rapid transmission of action potential

What are myelin sheaths?

Nodes of Ranvier: gaps between adjacent Schwann cells Oligodendrocyte s serve same purpose in CNS
White matter: areas of myelinated (primary fiber tracts) Gray matter: nerve cell bodies (unmyelinated)

What kinds of neurons are there?

Classify by function or structure Structure
Multipolar neurons
Most common (99%) Three or more processes Many dendrites, some no axon

Bipolar neurons
Retina, olfactory mucosa

Unipolar
One process; divides into proximal and distal branches (both are considered axons)

What kinds of neurons are there?

Function
Sensory (afferent) neurons
Conduct toward CNS from skin, internal organs Usually unipolar; soma located outside CNS More on sensory receptors in special senses lecture

Motor (efferent) neurons

Conduct away from CNS; multipolar Cell bodies in CNS

Interneurons (association neurons)

Between sensory and motor neurons; multipolar Usually entirely in CNS; 99% of all your neurons

Nerve physiology: Action potentials

What does it mean when a neuron fires?

Firing = excitability = action potential = nerve impulse High K+ in; high Na+ out Cell is polarized Cell overall neg. charge inside due to molecules like proteins, RNA, DNA
Charge measured in millivolts Potential = difference in charge across PM Current = flow of charge (ions) from one point to another

Recall resting potential of all cells

What lets ions move across the PM?

Membrane ion channels (proteins)
Passive (leakage): always open Active (gated): usually either opened or closed depending on type of gate
Chemically-gated: ligand-gated
E.g. ACh ion gate

Voltage-gated: open/close in response to change in potential

What causes resting potential in the first place?

Membrane permeability
K+ permeable, but not Na+ permeable
Creates membrane potential K+ leave cell but Na+ cant enter
Result: overall neg. charge inside cell

Na+/K+ pump maintains but does not create resting potential

Always a lot of K+ leaking out and a little Na+ leaking in

What is depolarization?
Reduction in membrane potential
Less difference between in- and outside of cell i.e cells becomes less negative (-70 mV to -50 mV) Cell can also temporarily become positive Excitatory event

Hyperpolarization
Cell becomes more negative than normal e.g. -70 mV to -90 mV Inhibitory event

What are local potentials?

Short-lived, local changes in membrane potential Can depolarize or hyperpolarize cell Ligand-regulated Graded = magnitude varies w/strength of stimulus
Stronger stimulus = greater voltage change, longer travel of current Caused when ion gates open due to stimulus

What happens during an action potential?

Follow on graph 1. Sodium ions arrive at axon hillock
Depolarizes membrane

2. Threshold reached (-55 mV)

What happens during an action potential?

3. Voltage-regulated Na+ (fast) gates open Slow voltage regulated K+ gates also open Depolarization begins

4.

Propagation of signal

What happens during an action potential?

5. Na+ gates close
(inactivate) above 0 mV

- voltage peaks around 35

mV - fully depolarized

6. At voltage peak, K+
gates are finally fully open

- repolarization begins at
K+ flows out How is this different from resting potential?

What happens during an action potential?

7. K+ gates
closer more slowly than Na+ gates

- result: more K+
out than Na+ in - overshoot = hyperpolarization
http://www.blackwellpublishing.co m/matthews/channel.html

What happens after an action potential?

Refractory period: few millisecs
Time during which cant stimulate neuron a second time Happens until recovery of resting potential

Two stages
Absolute refractory period
No new action potential possible

Relative refractory period

Can trigger new action potential if stimulus is very strong

How do action potentials travel down the axon?

Nerve signal = traveling wave of excitation produced by action potentials Unmyelinated sheaths
Slower transmission Action potential must open all gates between hillock and synaptic knob
Called continuous conduction

How do action potentials travel down the axon?

Myelinated sheaths
Many times faster transmission Action potential skips from one node of Ranvier to the next
Called saltatory conduction
http://www.blackwellpu blishing.com/matthews /actionp.html

What else influences speed of action potential?

Axon diameter
The larger the diameter, the faster the speed of transmission Less resistance to current flow with larger diameter

Faster transduction

Slower transduction

What happens if myelination is lost?

Multiple sclerosis
Autoimmune disease Usually young adults Blindness, problems controlling muscles
Ultimately paralysis

Immune system attacks myelin sheaths and nerve fibers

Scar tissue (scleroses) replaces some damaged cells Other now unmyelinated axons sprout Na+ channels
Accounts for sporadic nature of disease?

Neurotransmitters

What happens when the nerve signal reaches the synaptic knob?
First some terminology
Synapse: junction between two neurons
Use neurotransmitters
Allows for integration/evaluation of information

Presynaptic neuron
Can synapse with next neurons dendrites, soma or axon

Postsynaptic neuron Synaptic cleft

What are neurotransmitters?

Chemicals which cross synaptic cleft
Communicate with postsynaptic neuron

Over 100 known neurotransmitters

ACh, serotonin, glutamate, aspartate, glycine, GABA, NE, dopamine, histamine

Excitatory or inhibitory

How do other neurotransmitters work?

ACh and some others are ionotropic
Alters membrane potential

Rest are metabotropic

Use secondary messenger (e.g. cyclic AMP) to alter postsynaptic cell metabolism Neurotransmitter activates cAMP production For example

Also: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/matthews/neurotrans.html

How does a nerve signal stop?

Neurotransmitters usually bind for only about 1 msec
Then detaches, then reattaches, then detaches

If no new neurotransmitter available, stimulus stops

This can happen one of three ways
Diffusion Destruction (e.g. AChE)
http://www.microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC420/lecture_notes/clostridia/clostridia_neur otox/movie/botulinum_movie.html

Reuptake
Cocaine
http://www.wnet.org/closetohome/animation/coca-anim2-main.html

SSRIs
http://www.paxil.com/flash/depression.swf

How do SSRIs work?

How do neurons integrate multiple signals?

Like a democracy: count the votes! Mechanisms neurons use to process, store and retrieve information Postsynaptic potentials Excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP)
Na+ flows in an cancels some of neg. charge Glutamate, aspartate

Inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP)

Increases neg. charge Neurotransmitter opens Clgates into cell Glycine, GABA

ACh, NE can be either EPSPs or IPSPs

How do neurons integrate multiple signals?

Summation: adding up postsynaptic potentials
Sum determines if fire or not Need about 30 EPSPs to reach threshold

Temporal summation: new EPSPs arrive before decay of previous EPSP

Summation exceeds threshold

Spatial summation: several different synapses all emit EPSPs

Enough Na+ enters to reach threshold

What are neuronal circuits?

Pathways among neurons Diverging circuits
Large scale muscle contraction

Converging circuits
Good for incoming sensory information to converge in one part of brain

Reverberating circuit
Promotes inhalation (when reverberation stops, you exhale)

Parallel after-charge circuit

Seeing light bulb image after closing eyes