hi welcome to our video series on
neurological disorders
in this one i'm going to give you an
introduction to the spinal cord
now don't be intimidated by this topic
there's some
super cool things for you to learn about
this so let's start with kind of an
easing you into this subject what
connects the brain
and the spinal cord all right pause the
video
try and come up with an answer without
looking at your notes
okay what did you come up with let's
take a look at the next slide
the brain stem the brain and spinal cord
are connected by the brain stem
okay so you've heard us talk about that
but let's break it down what it really
is
see the brain stem has three parts as
you see in the graphic there
it's the midbrain the pons and the
medulla
okay for pause for just a minute make
sure you have in your mind the order
that they go
which section is closest to the whole
brain
it's the midbrain which one's in the
middle
pawns i know you've got this and then my
favorite one to say
medulla oblongata okay so i want you to
spend some time just
going over each one of those three parts
so you have it solid in your brain the
anatomy of your brain
the midbrain the pons and the medulla
oblongata
now this is the basic motor and sensory
function of the body if someone has
brain stem damage there's really not
much hope
because this is the one that's the basic
beating and breeding
sometimes the patient has experienced
massive brain damage
but the brain stem is still functioning
so you may hear someone say
they're just a brain stem that's left
that's what they mean
just the basic functions not the
executive level functions or the things
that give your personality
just the basic breathing and heart
beating kind of functions
if all that's left is the brainstem
that's able to function
so the spinal cord is kind of a bridge
between the brain and the other organs
of the body
this is what controls the rest of your
body we call it the central nervous
system
because it goes right down the center of
your body
the brain and spinal cord make the
central
nervous system now all the nerves that
come off and go out to the very ends of
my body
that's the peripheral nervous system but
it's the spinal cord that acts as the
bridge between my central nervous system
and the various other organs of the body
so let's talk about the spinal cord the
primary function of the spinal cord
is to facilitate transfer of information
okay i want to stop right there so think
about the spinal cord as an
information highway right information
goes up
and bossy directions come back down so
information goes
up out from the rest of your body up to
your brain then your brain decides what
you need to do and sends information or
signals back down to the rest of the
body
so the primary function of a spinal cord
is just the highway for information to
go from the brain
to the rest of the body and back okay so
the spinal cord sends sensory
information from the sensory receptors
that are spread all the way throughout
the body to the brain the spinal cord
will pick up signals from the motor area
of the brain and send them to the target
muscle and glands in the body so if i
just want to
move my finger right i have to send a
signal
down to my hand to tell it to make a
fist and to tell it to release
i want to pick up a leg set down a leg
same
concept so if you think about this is
what the main function of the spinal
cord is right it's the information
highway so if that spinal cord gets
damaged in any way
it's not going to work efficiently i'm
going to lose control
of certain parts of my body
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you