INTRODUCTION TO CNS PHYSIOLOGY

Ahmed A. E. Eljack 1

Rules of Our Sessions:

■ DO NOT COME IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED! You are going to

do more harm than good.

■ Come on time (or maximally after 15 minutes of the session

start).

■ Be quite during the session. No side talks or ringing phones

allowed.

■ Ask me if you have any question or comment.

Ahmed A. E. Eljack 2

What do you know about the nervous system?

■ Control the body (along with the endocrine system).

■ Receives inputs from inside or outside the body and respond

to them.

■ Controls our feelings!

Ahmed A. E. Eljack 3

Remember the Neuron?

■ Functional unit.

■ Composed mainly of:

– Cell body (perikaryon).

– Dendrites.

– Axon.

■ Anterograde and retrograde transport.

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Remember the Action Potential?

■ Membrane transport.

■ Resting membrane potential.

– Active transport.

– About -65 mV.

■ “all-or-nothing” phenomenon.

■ Myelinated vs. nonmyelinated neurons.

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Types of Synaptic Transmissions

■ Electrical transmission:

– Less in number.

– Very fast, usually in areas where synchronization is

needed.

– Ion channels between presynaptic and postsynaptic cell

membranes.

■ Chemical transmission:

– Uses neurotransmitters that travel in the synaptic cleft.

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Further Reading:

■ Barret, K.E, Barman, S.M, Boitano, S, Brooks, H.L. Ganong's

Review of Medical Physiology. (24th ed.). : McGraw-Hill; 2012.

■ Costanzo, L.S. Physiology. (5th

ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders; 2014

■ Hall, J.E. Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical

Physiology. (12th ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders; 2011.

■ Eljack, A. A. E. Eljack’s Lecture Notes in Neuroscience.

Khartoum; 2015

■ Siegel, A, Sapru, H.N. Essential Neuroscience. (3rd

ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2015.

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