What is the definition of the human movement system?
The combination and interrelation of the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems. It includes functional anatomy, functional biomechanics, and motor behavior.
What are the three primary functions of the nervous system?
What is the nervous system?
A conglomeration of billions of cells specifically designed to provide a communication network within the human body.
What is sensory function?
The ability of the nervous system to sense changes in either the internal or external environment.
Define integrative function.
The ability of the nervous system to analyze and interpret sensory information to allow for proper decision making, which produces the appropriate response.
What is motor function?
The neuromuscular response to the sensory information.
Define proprioception.
The cumulative sensory input to the central nervous system from all mechanoreceptors that sense body position and limb movement.
What is the cell body of a neuron / What does it contain?
The neuron cell body contains the nucleus and other organelles, including lysosomes, mitchondia, and a Golgi complex.
What is the primary function of dendrites in a neuron?
Dendrites gather information from other structures and transmit it back into the neuron.
What is the axon of a neuron?
What is a neuron?
A specialized cell that processes and transmits information through both electrical and chemical signals.
It is the functional unit of the nervous system and is divided into 3 main parts: the cell body, axon, and dendrites.
What are sensory (afferent) neurons?
Sensory neurons transmit nerve impulses from effector sites (such as muscles and organs) via receptors to the brain and spinal cord.
They respond to touch, sound, light, and other stimuli and transmit nerve impulses from effector sites.
What are interneurons?
Interneurons are neurons that transmit nerve impulses from one neutron to another.
What do motor (efferent) neurons do?
Motor neurons transmit nerve impulses from the brain and spinal cord to effector sites such as muscles or glands.
Example: brain tells hand muscles to let go of a hot coffee cup (after interpreted it was hot from sensory neurons and communicated through Interneurons).
What are the two main functions of peripheral nervous system and what is its main purpose?
Overall peripheral nerves/nervous system provide a constant update on the relation between the body and the environment.
What is the peripheral nervous system (PNS)?
The PNS consists of 12 cranial nerves, 31 pairs of spinal nerves (which branch out from the brain and spinal cord), and sensory receptors that spread throughout the body.
What are the subdivisions of the PNS and what are their main functions?
What are the subdivisions of the autonomic system and what are their functions?
What are sensory receptors and what are the 4 subcategories they are divided into?
Sensory receptors are specialized structures located throughout the body that convert environmental stimuli (heat, light, sound, taste, and motion) into sensory information that the brain and spinal cord use to produce a response.
What are mechanoreceptors and where are they located?
Mechanoreceptors are sensory receptors responsible for sensing distortion in body tissues / respond to mechanical pressure and outside forces (touch, pressure, stretching, sound waves, and motion) within tissues and then transmit signals through sensory nerves.
They are located in muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, and include muscle spindles, Golgi tendon organs, and joint receptors.
What are muscle spindles and what do they help regulate?
Muscle spindles are receptors that run parallel to muscle fibers that are sensitive to change in length of the muscle and the rate of that change.
Muscle spindles help regulate the contraction of muscles via the stretch reflex mechanism (when stretching.
The spindle sends an impulse to the brain, the brain then sends info to contract muscle within 1 to 2 milliseconds to prevent overstretching and potential muscle damage.
What are Golgi tendon organs (GTOs), where are they located, and what is the reaction when they are activated?
GTOs are receptors sensitive to change in tension of the muscle and the rate of that change.
They are located where skeletal muscle fibers insert the tendons of skeletal muscle.
Activation of the Golgi tendon organ will cause the muscle to relax, which prevents the muscle from excessive stress or possibility of injury.
What are joint receptors, where are they located, what do they activate in order to prevent too much stress on a joint?
What is a kinetic chain and what is its primary purpose?
The kinetic chain is the linked system of nerves, muscles, and joints that work together to produce movements.
The kinetic chain integrates these systems to produce efficient movement.