Neurology

Welcome to the Nervous system specialist page! You'll read all about the brain, spinal cord, and neurons. Below, some nice words from our specialists.


 * The brain**

One of the parts in the nervous system is the brain. There are three attached parts in the brain called the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the medulla.

//The cerebrum// This is the biggest part of the brain. This is where you think and where your memories are. This part lets you feel pain, heat, cold, touch, light, odors, taste and hear. The cerebrum is in two parts: the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. You use the right hemisphere for activities that contain music, art, and drama. It directs the left side of the body. The left hemisphere is for speaking, writing, reading and solving some kind of problems. This directs the right side of the body.

//The cerebellum// This is underneath the cerebrum and controls sensory impulses from muscles and joints. This helps your brain follow your body’s pose. So, if you lose balance it helps you stay up.

//The medulla// This attaches to the spinal cord. It is about as long as your thumb and this controls your heart, breathing, and some more activities like this. Image from: http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/projects/bifeprunox/images/brain_cross.jpg



From: http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/neurons_1.gif


 * Dr. Vanessa says…**

The function of the Nervous System is to receive information from your senses and the brain interprets the information. For example, if you touch something hot, the message from your touch receptors travel through your [|nerves] in your spinal cord and goes to the brain, which then sends a message back for you to draw your hand back. A message is called an impulse. The picture above shows how messages travel through special cells called [|axons]. In Addition: Click here for a [|quiz] on the Nervous System! + A [|video] on Brainpop!



http://www.faqs.org/health/images/uchr_02_img0126.jpg

The Central Nervous system Written by Dr. Katie

Dr. Katie says… The Central Nervous System is your brain and spinal cord. Your brain sends and receives messages from and to every part of your body. The spinal cord helps send and receives messages to and from the brain. For example if you step on a piece of glass your foot jerks up while the message is being sent to your brain and back to your foot. The message that is sent to your brain is telling it that you stepped on a piece of glass.

Some cool websites to find out more~

[|Wikipedia] [|Human central nervous system]

Here are some good websites that you can use while researching the nervous system: - http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookNERV.html - [|Diseases you can have] - http://www.yucky.com/flash/body/pg000136.html - [|Find out how much your brain weighs! What about compared to animals?] - [|Find out how to make your own Neuron]! - http://hes.ucf.k12.pa.us/gclaypo/nervoussys.html - [|Take a quiz on body systems!]

Image from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/images/446/nervoussystematlas.gif This is the entire nervous system.

Dr. Mahera writes...
 * __The Connection Between The Two Nervous Systems__**



http://www.infovisual.info/03/038_en.html

In this image you can see the entire connection between the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).

The basic function of the Nervous System is to send and receive messages from and to different parts of our body. This is the procedure by which the two Nervous Systems communicate: 1) Cells in our body called [|Sensory Neurons], send [|impulses] to the [|Spinal Cord], which then passes the message to the biggest part of the Nervous System-The Brain. 2) Once the Brain gets the message, it has very little time, to send the command back, with the help of a different kind of cell called the [|Motor Neuron]. 3) The Motor Neuron then, sends the command to the [|designated] body part, and that is how we sleep, eat, drink and have fun! If it wasn't for the Brain, there would be so many things which we wouldn't be able to do!!!

If you are a biggener as far as the Nervous System is concerned this is an excellent site to visit: http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/body/pg000136.html

Dr. Mahera

To find out every tiny thing about the nervous system, go here: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html#bb By Dr. Lilian

Your spinal cord, brain and neurons are all parts of your central nervous system. Your spinal cord is connected to your [|medulla]. Your spinal cord is about as big as a thumb. It is filled with millions of nerves. It receives and sends out information like the brain stem. The information it receives doesn’t come from the brain stem. Instead, it comes from all over the body. It has a lot of [|axons] and neurons that pass impulses from and to the brain. One of the neurons is called the sensory neuron which is in the skin and muscles. Impulses from your spinal cord send the message to the brain and can be interpreted as different sensations such as pain, heat, and cold. The spinal cord is bordered by lots of small protective bones, which are called [|vertebrae]. The [|nerve fibers] that are in your spinal cord allow your brain to correspond with the [|peripheral nervous system].
 * Spinal Cord**


 * Injuries**

When the spinal cord is injured it is possible that any sensory information that’s coming where the injury is may not be able to get to the brain. Equally, any motor information that the brain sends below the injury will most probably not get interpreted by the peripheral nerves. Thousands of people are [|paralyzed] by spinal cord injuries each year. So, if you fracture you thumb size spinal cord you can become paralyzed for ever. By Dr. Andrea

Hi again! It's Dr. Vanessa writing back to tell you more about the Nervous System. Right now, I can only tell about the three main functions of the brain... It is the biggest part of your brain, and it is divided into two parts: the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere controls the right side of your body, and helps you speak, write, solve problems, etc. The right hemisphere controls the left side of your body, and is mainly about creativity, drama, music, etc. The cerebrum lets you feel pain, heat, cold, and this is where most memories are stored. This is the second biggest part of your brain, and keeps track of your body's position. If you were tying your shoe lace, holding on to your dog's collar, and standing on one foot, your cerebellum helps you to keep your balance. Your medulla may only be 3cm long, but it is vitally important! In fact, you couldn't even be living without your medulla! Your medulla mainly controls your blood pressure and your breathing.
 * Another Word from Dr. Vanessa...**
 * The Cerebrum:**
 * The Cerebellum:**
 * The Medulla:**

I will keep you updated on the nervous system. Dr. Vanessa The hypothalamus is a very important part of the brain that is only about 1/300s of the brains weight. It is about the size of a pea. But it controls the bodies’ temperature, the emotions, hunger, and thirst. When you are too hot your hypothalamus detects it and send a message to to expand your capillaries in your skin so your blood cools faster. If you didn’t have your hypothalamus you wouldn’t know when you are hungry or thirsty and would die of lack of food and water. Just think what life would be like if you didn’t have emotions, it would be very boring, so aren’t you glad you have a hypothalamus. Dr. Robbie
 * Hypothalamus:**

As you have already learnt from Dr. Andrea, the Nervous System, is a very important system in our body, and if it is damaged, then then our body can face some problems. The Spinal Cord is a very important part of the CNS. It is important to know that if our Spinal Cord is damaged, then the sensory information going to, and the motor information going from the Spinal Cord can be damaged. But it is more important to know how we can protect ourselves from these circumtances. Most Spinal injuries are caused by sports, as far as ameture atheletes are concerned, but most injuries are caused by [|automobile] accidents. Here is a picture of the Spinal Cord:
 * THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SPINAL CORD**

http://www.georgiapainphysicians.com/downloads/m1_slides/4.%20Spinal%20cord%20junctions.jpg

The long tube-like-thing is the [|Spine]. The Spine consists of a thin wire call the Spinal Cord. If either the Spine or Spinal Cord get damaged, then one can be [|paralyzed]. When a person is paralyzed, then the person may have some sensory problems eg. the person may become deaf or blind, or the person may have some motor disorders eg. the person is not able to walk or is unable to move an arm. There are alot of ways in which a person can injure their Spine or Spinal Cord, but they are also many ways to protect it! If you are an ameture athelete, then it would always be wise, to go on the field with full protection. Also, while seated in a car, we should always wear are seat belts. Even the smallest of saftey regulations, can protect us from a massive injury. The Spinal Cord is an important part of the Nervous System, it is our responsibility to take care of it. By Dr. Mahera

Note from Dr. Lilian: The inside of the spinal cord consists of grey matter, made of the cell bodies from neurons, and white matter has axons. The groups they are arranged in are called tracts and send messages up and down the cord. (From the brain to the spinal nerves.)

Image from: http://www.infovisual.info/03/img_en/024%20Spinal%20cord.jpg//

Reflexes are emergency reactions from the nervous system to a pain such as touching a part of a cactus or standing on a toy laying around. They work like this:
 * Reflexes**

- The message from the threat such as biting very hard on your tongue passes to the central nervous system. - This gives a response (Very quickly), and it also passes to the brain where it sends back the pain.

Some tips for finding out more about the nervous system: - Go on to Google and search for nervous system. You might need to narrow your search down. - Read books in the science lab - The Google Science Encyclopedia is also very handy - Look on the links on our [|home page].

Dr Remy says: here is a cool link you http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/brain/# http://whyfiles.org/023spinal_cord/images/spinemap.jpg Dr.Katie says...

spinal stenosis is a disease where the spinal cord and nerves are compressed. Spinal stenosis is caused by tumors, osteoporosis, and spinal disk herination.There are two types of spinal stenosis called Cervical spinal stenosis and Lumbar spinal stenosis. Lumbar spinal stenosis hurts the legs and the back. some helpful websites: [|wikipedia] [|medline plus]

Dr. Mahera says.. Are you interested in learning about the 3 parts of the Brain, well this is your chance. Dr. Vanessa has already told you in detail, but if you are a biggener in this field this is a good way to start off!

MEDULLA The Medulla is the smallest part of the Brain, but you could not live without it. The Medulla controls you blood pressure, heartbeats, breathing etc.

CEREBRUM The Cerebrum, is the biggest part of your brain. It [|consists] of 2 hemispheres. The right and left hemispheres. The left hemisphere controls the right side of your body, and it controls you ability to do Math, Science and other subjects that involve [|calculations]. The right hemisphere controls the left side of your body, and it controls the creative and [|innovative] side of you.

CEREBELLUM The Cerebellum is the second largest part of our Brain. It controls our body’s position. Have you ever felt that you are about to fall, then all of a sudden you get your balance back. This happens because your Cerebellum is doing its job!

Hopefully this should give you an idea of the 3 parts of the Brain.

Dr. Mahera

A Bit More Info From Dr. Vanessa

Hello once again! When I left off, I was talking about the medulla, the cerebrum, and the cerebellum. Now I will start talking about injuries and why it is important to keep this body system healthy and intact. Most people suffer from spinal cord injuries EVERY year! Most injuries are from rough sports. Hurting your spinal cord is fatal. Any information from the brain going to a muscle/body part below the injury might not get the message, and you could be paralyzed forever. So play sports that aren’t very rough, such as tennis or badminton. That is all the advice I can give you… I’ll keep you posted on new information!

Dr. Vanessa Another little something thrown in by Dr. Sam: Hello, this is Dr Sam with a simple definition of the **Nervous System.** The system of nerves and nerve centers in an animal or human, including the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and [|ganglia.] /ˈgæŋgliən/ - [**gang**-glee-//uh]// I hope you enjoyed my defintion.

Dr. Sam

Dr.Stephan

Hello, this is Dr. Stephan here to tell u how the nervous system works in my words. the nervous system is an [|internal] communication network that transfers information from all over your body to your brain and back. The spinal cord is like the highway that lets information pass from your brain to different parts of your body. The brain is the most important function in the nervous system, the brain is like the head quarters because it gets all the information and sends it back down the spinal cord.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/images/ency/fullsize/19588.jpg Dr. Stephan

Hello, im here to tell you about the three main parts of the brain in my words

Cerebrum: The biggest part of your brain. It controls two hemispheres in your brain. The left and right hemispheres. The right hemisphere controls the left side of your body. The left hemisphere controls the right side of your body, it has the ability for you to do Science, Math, Problems, Reading and other types of subjects that contain thinking, it's more of a academic side. The right hemisphere controls the left side of your body, and it your creativity, your dreams, entertainment and etc, it is more of the creative side of your brain.

Cerebellum: The Cerebellum is the second biggest part of your brain. It controls your movement, and your balancement. If you didnt have the cerebellum you wont be able to walk or balance.

Medulla: The Medulla is the tiniest part of your brain. The Medulla controls your heartbeats, blood pressure, and breathing etc. http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/wrigglesworth/brainparts.jpg Here are two quick links:

This has been a special "own worded" definition of the **Stimulus System.** Brought to you by the sources of Sam's brain.
 * Some MORE words from Dr. Sam:** Here is a **cool** definition and description of the spinal cord. The spinal cord is part of the central nervous system. It is as big as your thumb. It contains bundles of axons and neurons. The axons and neurons pass impulses to and from the brain. **The Spinal Cord's Defences:** The defence that the spinal cord has is a bone called a verebrae. (**VUHR TAH BRAY)**
 * A quick, quick disagree by Dr. Lilian:** The right hemishpere controls the right side of the body and the left hemishpere controls the right side of the body.
 * Another quick quick disagree by Dr. Sam:** The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body.
 * Quick Definition of the //Stimulus System://** First of all, the nerves located in your sensory organs such as eyeballs, mouth, skin etc. recieve information from the enviroment around you. The information first comes through your sensory nerves. The information is brought up to your your spinal cord which is the "gateway" to the brain. Your spinal cord is about as big as your thumb. The energy goes up the spinal cord to the brain. The brain figures out what the problem is, and then sends the instructions of what to do. The message travels back down the spinal cord. A different type of nerve called the mortor neuron brings the message to the muscles in the sensory organ, the muscles then know how to react and do what it has been told to do. Of course, this all happens by itself and you don't have to think about any of the things except sometimes pullin your hand away from something that isn't burning so hot.