Neuro Exam and Packet Notes

Connect neurons to other neurons. Major role in withdraw reflex.

• Holds primary motor cortex. 
• Voluntary complex movement
• Judgement
• Attention
• Awareness
• Thinking
• Mood
• Aggression

• Motor speech.
• 95% of people have it in left lobe.

• Holds primary sensory cortex
• Perception
• Short term memory
• Homonculus

• Primary auditory cortex
• Visual perception
• Musical discrimination
• Long term memory

• Hearing and understanding language. 
• In temporal lobe

• Holds primary visual cortex
• Sensory visual intake info occurs at the primary visual cortex

• Balance
• Posture
• Coordination
• Complex muscular movements
• Monitors movement requested vs movement prefered

• Grasp general concepts
• Nonverbal
• Artistic
• Processing info without looking at entire picture
• Spatial awareness
• Anger/unhappiness
• Perceiving negative emotions

• Language
• Happiness
• Verbal
• Analytic
• Logical
• Linear

• Base of cerebrum
• Posture and muscle tone regulation
• Control motor planning in the cerebrum

Thalamus and hypothalamus

Relay station for all afferent impulses but smell

• Homeostasis
• Autonomic
• Endocrine
• ANS
• Controls pituitary

Mid brain, pons, and medulla

Relay area for all afferent impulses but smell

• Regulates breathing
• Orientation of head (head rightening)
• Has CN V-VIII

• Extension of SC
• Motor and sensory for neck and mouth
• Controls HR
• Controls RR
• Reflect center for vomiting, sneezing, swallowing, homeostasis

Motor counterpart of the thalamus

Wrap myelin sheath around axons

• Central nervous system
• Brain, cerebellum, brain stem, and SC

• Peripheral nervous system
• Somatic NS and autonomic NS

• Sensory
• "A"scends spine
• Spinothalamic
• Posterior (Dorsal) Horn

• Motor
• "E"xits brain/spine
• Corticospinal
• Anterior (Ventral) Horn

Transmit info across space (synaptic cleft) between one neuron's axon to another neuron's dendrite

• Motor
• Crosses over in brain stem
• Travels from frontal lobe to anterior horn cell in SC

• Pain and temp (sensation)
• Cross over in SC

• Areas in lobes that link horizontally with other areas
• Allow ability to perceive and attach meaning to sensory experiences
• IE personality, memory intelligence, and generation of emotions

Control contralateral voluntary movement especially of UE and facial

Control trunk and posture

Initiate movement, orientation of eyes and head, preprogrammed movements like walking and driving

• Inability to plan tasks (approxia)
• Difficulty initiating and sequencing tasks
• Difficulty producing and understanding speech
• Impaired motor behavior
• Anxiousness

• Poor judgement
• Unrealistic expertations
• Denial of deficits
• Impaired body image
• Irritability
• Lethargy

Basal ganglia

• Controls Learning
• Memory
• Pain
• Pleasure
• Rage
• Affection
• Sexual interest
• Fear/sorrow
• Hypothalamus part of it; controls primitive emotional reactions like rage and fear

• L1
• Extends through conus medullaris then becomes cauda equina (L2-S5 nerve roots)

• Withdrawl
• Stretch

Motor

Sensory

• Check for corticospinal damage
• A light touch going from heel to ball of foot
• If big toe extends and other toes fan out its a positive test usually meaning damage to corticospinal tract
• Doesn't apply to 6 months and under

Alpha motor neuron and all muscle fibers that is innervates

Any damage from frontal cortex all the way to where the corticospinal tract to its end in the SC

At anterior horn, anterior horn cell, spinal root, spinal nerve and out

• Flaccidity
• Muscle atrophy
• Twitching (fasciculations)
• Hyporeflexia

• Spasticity
• Hyperrflexia
• + Babinski 
• Possible clonus (jerking at foot)

• Sensory organ in the muscle with motor and sensory endings and muscle fibers
• Fibers respond to CNS with regard to muscle length

Tap muscle/spindle, sensory info hits dorsal root, goes to interneuron, then anterior horn cell, then immediately back to muscle without traveling up SC to the brain

• SCI 
• Paralysis

• Voluntary reactions to outside stimuli
• Skeletal muscle contraction

• Involuntary control of glads, smooth muscle, and myocardium
• Maintains homeostasis, digestion, and circulation