• Overall Nervous System
  • The Visible Human Project renders extraction animations for nerves in the body . Here are two examples.

• Overall structure and physiology of the nervous system
  1. The Washington University School of Medicine has an interesting and complete tutorial of the CNS anatomy and physiology. This is a link to the index page of the complete tutorial.
  2. This drag and drop learning tutoral will teach and test your knowledge of CNS anatomy.
  3. The flow chart organization of the entire nervous system as presented in your text book and lecture study guide is the center of this link. It is a drag and drop of the concept map that tests your knowledge of nervous system organization.

• Anatomy of the Nervous System
  • This comprehensive view from the University of Washington is a good place to start and come back to often as you learn and understand nervous system anatomy.
  • Lecture outline with color photos. Also a downloadable .pdf file is available on this link.

• The Brain
  • Anatomy of the brain
    • These frontal sections in sequenced animation of the Visible Human Project's cadaver brain give a prespective to brain structure.
    • Cerebral lobes. This mouse over page shows the areas on the cerebral cortex.
    • Midsagittal anatomy. Basis anatomy of the midsaggital brain with mouse overs.
  • Blood vessels
    • These animated sequences of blood frow through cerebral arteries presents three views. Included is the Circle of Willis.
  • Cerebrospinal fluid flow
    • These two animations show labeled and unlabeled sequences of CSF flow from the source of blood back into the veins (sinuses) of the brain.
  • Reflexes (of the cranium)
    1. parasympathetic reflex in the changing of the eye's pupil diameter.
    2. oculocehalic reflex. This shows the nerve pathways and muscles that allow us to stay looking at an object as our head turns or the object is moving out of our field of view.
    3. voluntary control of facial muscles involves pathways between the cerebral cortex and facial nerves and their muscles.

• Functional areas of cerebral cortex
  1. This must see and use animation shows what happens if you could touch or probe various parts of the cerebral cortex and see the movement of the related appendages.
  2. The motor and premotor areas of the cerebral cortex.
  3. Association and memory recall are fuctions centered on the cerebral cortex.

• The Spinal Cord

• Autonomic Nervous system (or division)
  1. The somatic division compared to the autonomic nervous system
  2. The parasympathetic division
  3. The sympathetic division

• Impulse or Action Potential
  1. An impulse moves across a membrane by depolarizing a membrane and by saltatory conduction. This animation shows both mechanisms.
  2. The region of where a polarized membrane is being depolarized is the impulse.
  3. This explation shows both an animation and then a series of sketches that are printable to see and understand action potentials.
  4. A good basic animation of a typical action potential across or down a cell membrane.
  5. Neuro transmitters (NT) and neurohormones (NH) at an excitatory synapse open up gated sodium and potassium channels to start an impulse. That sequence continues as a wave of depolarization or impulse across that living cell membrane.
  6. This highly detailed animation shows the resting state of a nonconducting cell membrane. Clicking on parts of the multipolar neuron will show the gated channel (Na and K) changes that start an impulse.
  7. This animation shows Na+ and K+ movements in and out of a neuron. Also, included is a slight explanation of the events and sequence.
  8. Here is a collection of videos to show the processes of an impulse and synapse.

• Neuromuscular Junction
  1. This sketch sequence if from the textbook by Martini.
  2. Audio is with this video that is excellent in its explanation of neuromuscular junction events.

• Medications
  1. Cocain free dopamine synapse
  2. Dopamine synapse with cocaine

• Neurons
  • This starts with the brain and takes you into what neurons look lake and how they function within the brain.
  • Regeneration of damaged neurons occurs almost exclusively in the peripheral nervous syste. This link shows that but with sketches

• Pathology in the nervous system
  1. Stroke
  2. Depression
  3. Alzheimer's disease
  4. Multiple Sclerosis - MS
  5. Pain
  • Referred pain surface anatomy

• Reflex (Spinal reflexes)
  • A flexor reflex or withdrawl reflex is for protection.
  • The sequence in a reflex over the reflex arc has many components. This SLOW RUNning animation shows that reflex.
  • The stretch reflex. Skeletal muscles when stretched will start an impulse to return to the same muscle stimulating it to contract. The contraction may or may not happen depending on the load or weight the muscle needs to move.

• Synapse (chemical and excitatory only)
  1. This impulse to synapse is a general animation of events.
  2. Basic knowledge of a synapse is important before knowing the details.
  3. Synaptic potentials in -mV (graded millivoltage) is one way to explan these events. It could be a bit confusing.
  4. This is an excellent explanation with text to read and copy as it explains and shows the sequence of events in an excitatory synapse.
  5. A synapse that uses acetylcholine as its neurotransmitter is called cholinergic. This animation uses that NT.
  6. This visual shows the general changes in the receptor proteins of the postsynaptic memebrane.
  7. A general view of this process may the best place to first start as you study the chemistry sequence of a synapse.
  8. An older animation before computers is the sketch work (pencil and paper) for this animation.
  9. Quiz yourself about the sequence of synaptic activity.
  10. Dopamine and addiction. This link reviews the current basic understandings about addiction and dopamine.

• The Nervous System and Exercise

  Other Internet Sites (may contain dead links)

• The Whole Brain Atlas -- This is maintained by the Harvard Medical school and attempts to be current. Good color photos from cadavers and living humans.
• Neurohistology - This site by the University of Kansas Medical School has a good collection of nervous system histology photographs.
• The Global Spinal Cord - Web version of the neuroanatomy course book used by 1st year Medical students at the University of Wisconsin Medical school.
• Smoking and the Brain -- A research project by various college students
• The Brain - Columbia School of Medicine list many links, such as, headaches, stress migranes et cetera about the brain and nervous system

This reference may help you find related information

United States Medical Licensing Exam - Here is a site that summarizes what a physican needs to know before taking their l;icensing exam. It is 25 pages in outline format. Check it out to see how much you know.

Pharmacology - ISAP (Internet Self Assessment in Pharmacology) is an online "flashcard" database. You'll like this

Embryology -University of Cincinnati Medical Software Site. This site has a ton of info including "Larsen's Embryology On-Line". Also, check out the tutorials of Cardiac, Renal, Respiratory, Anatomy..... We give the site two dissected thumbs up.

NASA experiments - This loaded site allows you to search for the results of many experiments that are relative to the human body ann learn the results. Try it. In their "Research Area" section pull down the area of your choice.

Anatomical Terminology - a complete list of anatomical terms, what they mean and where they originated

Anatomical Imaging sites on the WWW ---This list will connect to many visual imaging programs/sites around the world.

The Virtual Body

Medical Animations - Some real cool sites

The Digital Anatomist - 2-D & 3-D images (computer-generated and photographs) of neuroanatomy and some gross anatomy. This is an excellent site from the University of Washington.

The Visible Human Project - The National Institute Of Medicine funded ($18 Million) for advancing the learning of human anatomy in both males and females through digital rendering of cadaver sections. A MUST TO EXPERIENCE

Anatomy and Cellular Biology - Tufts University

Vesalius - An excellent site for sketches, digital images and renderings from cadavers of the Visible Human Project.

Pathology - University of Kansas Medical Center

Anatomical Trivia -

Anatomical Terminology - The origins and history of many terms in anatomy and physiology -= An interesting site, sort of.

AGING

• Men and Aging
• Aging and Death - Notes on these topics

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