Sheep Brain Dissection

In this dissection my group and I dissected a sheeps brain to show we understood how to dissect. We had gathered as much information on each plane of section: saggital, coronal, and horizontal.

Sagittal Plane of Section

  

Coronal Plane of Section
 

Horizontal Plane of Section
 

Sheep Brain

Reflex Lab

Neuromuscular Reflexes Lab\

 

In this lab there was a group of us and we recorded the results from tapping the patellar tendon below the knees with a reflex hammer. This motion caused the quadriceps muscle to contract and the leg would then kick up. When the muscles stretch nerve impulses travel to the spinal cord Motor neurons would then activate and go back to the muscle for the muscle contractions

 

Procedure:

So to begin with we grab a computer and connect the EKG Sensor to the computer, then attach two of the electrode tabs above to subjects knee. The last one should then be placed on the lower leg. The three colored cords should be connected correctly, the red and green should be connected to the electrodes above the knee, the black then connected to the electrode below the knee. Tap the subject with the reflex hammer, then record the voluntary activation data. Afterwards record the patellar reflex  data and the patellar reflex data with reinforcement.

 

First Run 

 

Second Run

 

Third Run

Diseases of the Nervous System

There are two links below to two different presentations that my group and I created to understand the diseases to the nervous systems. We were able to gain quite a bit of knowledge doing our own research on the diseases. So click on the links to learn a thing or two!!!!
Concussions  &  ALS Disease !!!!

Neurophysiology Drawings

 Neuron- So neurons are specialized to transmit/send information throughout your body. These nerve cells are just like any other cell, they have a nucleus. If you look at the picture above you will see the axons which branch our with long tails. They are connected to the axon terminal.

Ion Channels- They are made up of membrane proteins. Ion Channels allow some ions to pass through and prevents some others to pass, they are very selective. The ions diffuse and follow their electrochemical gradients as gate ions channels open. This tends to create electrical currents and voltage changes across the membrane.

Membrane Protein Pump- This is when the potassium has to come out to equalize the charges when the sodium pumps in.

Synaptic Potential- A synaptic potential occurs when neurons connect. It comes in two forms which are excitatory and inhibitory. So the sodium receptors detect the synapse and sodium is released into the membrane. The inside starts to become less negative while the outside will do the opposite and become less positive.

Resting Potential- When a neuron is not sending a signal it is at rest, the inside of the neuron is negative relative to the outside. The resting membrane potential of a neuron is about -70 mV. So at rest there are more sodium ions outside the neuron and more potassium ions inside that neuron.

Action Potential- An action potential occurs when a neuron sends information down an axon away form a cell body. First a stimulus causes sodium channels to open, sodium ions then rush into the neuron. Sodium has a positive charge, the neuron becomes more positive, it then takes longer for the potassium channels to open. Potassium rushes out of the cell when they open, at this time sodium channels start to close and this action causes the action potential to go toward -70mV and it then goes past -70mV because the potassium channels stay open too long. Eventually ions concentration goes back to resting levels and the cell returns to -70mV