Development of the nervous system (NS). Nerve cells. NS peripheral and autonomous divisions. Central NS. Spinal cord circuits, short and long tracts. Brain. Hindbrain: oblongata, brain nerves (BN, V to XII) cerebellum and pons cerebelli. Midbrain: optic tectum, BN II, III, IV. Interbrain: thalamus telencephalon paths. Endbrain: BN I, septum, striatum, paleopallium, archipallium, neopallium. Nuclear vs cortical arrangements. Acoustic, visual and taste smell central paths. Neural response plasticity. Receptor cells and organs
E. R. Kandel et al. : Principi di Neuroscienze. Casa Editrice Ambrosiana.
Mazzi & Fasolo: Introduzione alla Neuroanatomia dei Vertebrati. Ed. Boringhieri
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired:
Anatomical basis of the vertebrate behavioural patterns
Competence to be acquired:
Morphofunctional analysis of the CNS in the light of the behavioural responses to the challenges from the environment.
Skills to be acquired :
Achieving a coherent scheme of the functional flexibility of the CNS as a result of its adaptive plasticity
Prerequisites
Courses to be used as requirements (required and/or recommended)
Neurobiology
Teaching Methods
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending classes, seminars, private study, examinations ...): 150
Hours reserved to private study and other indivual formative activities: 102
Office hours 10.00-12.00, Friday
Furthermore: 1 hr after class
Frequency of classes, practice and lab: Recommended
Teaching tools Drawings, tables and Power Point.
Language of instructions: Italian
Type of Assessment
Oral assessment
Course program
Development of the vertebrate nervous system (NS). Nerve cell types according to morphological and or functional criteria. Basic neural circuits, convergence, divergence, spatial summation, temporal summation,. Facilitation, dys-facilitation. NS peripheral and autonomous divisions (orthosympathetic and parasympathetic). Central NS. Spinal cord circuits and tracts: spinospinal, spinoencephalic and encephalospinal. Long tracts originating from ganglion cells and from intercalated neurons. Brain. Hindbrain: medulla oblongata, brain nerves (BN): V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, cerebellum and pons cerebelli. Cerebellar cortex in Amniota. Ascending and descending tracts from intralaminar nuclei; cortex pons cerebellum tract. Midbrain: optic tectum and related histological structure in reptiles. BN II, III and IV. Association nuclei of Hind- and Midbrain. Reticular formation. Interbrain: epithalamus, hypothalamus and thalamus (thalamic nuclei in mammalians). Thalamus telencephalon circuits in higher primates. Endbrain: BN I, septum, striatum (neostriatum, basal ganglia), paleopallium, archipallium, neopallium. Nuclear vs cortical nerve cell arrangements. Acoustic, visual and taste smell central paths, and respective contributions to behavioural patterns. Motility control diseases. Limbic lobe/system.