Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Fall 2013
Objectives
-Be able to concisely describe the gross anatomy of the spinal cord including its position inside the
vertebral column and the spaces and membranes between the vertebral column and the cord. .
-Be able to explain the naming convention of spinal roots relative to the vertebrae in the cervical cord
and more caudally.
-Be able to explain why there is not C1
dermatome and the general locations of
the muscles receiving input from the C1
spinal nerve.
-Be able to describe the structure,
organization, and basic function of the
cord in cross-section, including the
difference between a spinal root and a
spinal nerve.
-Be able to describe the motor
somatotopy in the ventral horn of the
spinal cord.
-Be able to explain the general
differences in the gray and white matter at
different levels of the spinal cord and why
the cord is bigger in the cervical and
lumbar regions.
-Be able to name the 3 major fasciculi in
the cord.
-Be able to explain the basic organization
of the stretch and withdrawal reflexes.
-Be able to describe what a central
pattern generator is.
-Be able to describe, examples of
descending and sensory inputs to CPGs
regulating movement.
I. Overview
As the drawing to the right shows, the spinal cord is the long extension of the brain running down the
middle of the back. In some ways the spinal cord looks and functions like a cable bringing sensory
information from the body to the brain and sending movement commands from the brain to the body.
It is also a complicated processor of sensory and motor information that regulates sensory inflow and
contributes to the control of effective movements. Note that for everything discussed in sections III VI below, there are analogous structures and functions for the head and face, mediated by cranial
nuclei and other brainstem neurons.
There are 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, and 5 sacral spinal nerves. Note that the most rostral
nerve, C1 exits rostral of the C1 vertebra and the last cervical nerve exits below the C7 vertebra.
Thus there are 8 cervical spinal nerves but only 7 cervical vertebrae. Thoracic, lumbar, and sacral
roots all exit below their associated vertebrae so that there are the same number of roots and
vertebrae in these parts of the spine.
-Class 3, page 1-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
-Class 3, page 2-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
3. The spinal
nerve at each
level of the cord
carries somatic
sensory
information from
a specific region
of skin at that
level into the
cord. Each
spinal nerve
also sends
motor
commands to
specific muscles
at the level of
the nerve. The
region of the
skin from which
somatosensory
information
enters the cord
through one
spinal nerve is
called a
dermatome.
The region of
the body that
receives motor
commands from one spinal root is called a
myotome. Dermatomes and myotomes
represent skin and muscles in the same parts of
the body, respectively.
The drawing to the left shows the dermatomes
associated with spinal nerves at each spinal
segment. The arrangement of dermatomes
makes some sense in that cervical segments (C2C8) carry information from the upper part of the
body while lumbar and sacral segments carry
information from lower parts of the body. Still, the
arrangement of dermatomes in the limbs seems
different from that in the trunk. In the drawing
above of a standing man, the borders of the
dermatomes in the limbs are approximately
vertical while those in the trunk are approximately
horizontal.
A sensible way to understand the arrangement
of dermatomes is to imagine our bodies on all
fours, as in the drawing to the right. In this
posture the borders of all of the dermatomes run
approximately vertically and are roughly parallel.
Further, the progression from lumbar dermatomes on the front of the legs to sacral
dermatome, on the back of the legs and on the buttocks, now looks orderly.
-Class 3, page 3-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
-Class 3, page 4-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
-Class 3, page 5-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
3. Motoneurons, i.e., those whose axons terminate on muscles, are in the ventral horn of spinal
gray matter. The axons of these motoneurons leave the cord through ventral (motor) roots to
terminate on ipsilateral
muscles. As the
drawing to the right
shows, there is a
relationship between the
position of a motoneuron
in the ventral horn and
the position of the
muscle that it contacts in
the body. Motoneurons
for axial (trunk) muscles
are in the medial part of
the ventral horn while
the motoneurons for
distal (limb) muscles are
in the lateral ventral
horn. The more lateral a
motoneuron in the
ventral horn, the more
distal the muscle that
the motoneuron
contacts.
4. Further, as the drawing
to the right shows there
is a dorsal-ventral
(posterior-anterior)
organization in which the
motoneurons of flexor
muscles lie more
dorsally in the ventral
horn than the
motoneurons of
extensor muscles.
5. We call an arrangement
like this, in which there
is an orderly spatial
representation of the
body inside the CNS, a
somatotopy.
6. Note in the drawing in
the middle of the
previous page that
between the dorsal and
ventral horns of the
spinal gray matter there
is a region called the
intermediate gray.
Neurons in this region are interneurons that process sensory information entering the cord
from nearby spinal roots as well as motor signals descending from the brain. These neurons
then send their output to motoneurons in the ventral horn.
-Class 3, page 6-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
-Class 3, page 7-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013
-Class 3, page 8-
NBIO 401
Fall 2013