CNS

includes the brain and spinal cord

PNS

includes all nerve fibers outside the brain and spinal cord: the 12 pairs of cranial nerves, the 31 pairs of spinal nerves, and all their branches.

Afferent messages

PNS carrying sensory messages to the SNS from the receptors

Efferent messages

motor messages from the CNS out to the muscles and glands, as well as autonomic messages that govern the internal organs and blood vessels

cerebral cortex

center for human's highest functions, governing thought, memory, reasoning, sensation, and voluntary movement

frontal lobe

areas concerned with personality, behavior, emotions, and intellectual functioning

precentral gyrus

of frontal lobe initiates voluntary movement

postcentral gyrus of parietal lobe

primary center for sensation

occipital lobe

visual receptor center

temporal

behind ear; primary auditory reception center with functions of hearing, taste, and smell

Wernicke's area

in temporal lobe; associated with language comprehension

what happens when the Wernicke's area is damaged in the dominant hemisphere?

receptive aphasia; person hears sound, but it has no meaning, like hearing a foreign language

Broca's area

in frontal lobe; mediates motor speech

what happens when the broca's area is damaged in the dominant hemisphere?

expressive aphasia results; the person cannot talk. the person can understand language and knows what he or she wants to say but can produce only a garbled sound

how does damage to these areas occur?

when highly specialized neurologic cells are deprived of their blood supply, such as when a cerebral artery becomes occluded or when vascular bleeding or vasospasm occurs

basal ganglia

large bands of gray matter buried deep within the two cerebral hemispheres that form subcortical associated motor system. help coordinate and control automatic associated movements of the body

thalamus

main relay station where sensory pathways of spinal cord, cerebellum, and brainstem form synapses on their way to the cerebral cortex