The Central Nervous System

Course description

The objectives of this course are to empower the student with a clinically based approach to understanding the central nervous system of humankind. The complexity of the nervous system will be understood from the microscopic to macroscopic levels. The divisions of the nervous system that can be visualized with and without magnification or imaging will be explored in a fashion that will allow a mastery of functional neurological systems. The course promotes an indepth understanding of how nerve cells manipulate the information of a complex system. The metabolic rates of the nervous system demanded understanding of biomolecules and ions against an energy gradient. Central to a clinical exploration of the nervous system is an understanding of how humankind receives information from other nerve cells and from the environment. When information is received it must be processed and sent to other areas of the nervous system and beyond. The student will understand neuronal communication in both health and disease. This understanding will be based upon applications central to receiving, processing and sending information in the central nervous system

Course content

• Central nervous system structure and function
• Electrical properties of neurons
• Neurochemistry and the nervous system
• Localization of function in the central, peripheral and visceromotor nervous systems
• Clinical anatomy of the nervous system: spinal cord, medulla oblongata, pons and cerebellum, midbrain, thalamus
• Communication and pathways
• Blood brain barrier
• Functional relationships between neurological systems
• Clinical presentations of neurological disorders
• Effector organs and central controls
• Diagnostic imaging