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Cranial Nerve Essay

Decent Essays

1) Define the following terms: (28 points)
Cranial Nerve
12 pairs of somatic nerves (1 left nerve + 1 right nerve each) that are associated with voluntary control of muscles, and usually supply innervation to structures in the head and neck - the exception being the vagus nerve. They are either afferent (sensory), efferent (motor), or a mixture of the two.
Reflex
An autonomic or unconscious response of an effector organ (muscle or gland) to an appropriate stimulus, enacted by a reflex arc.
Homonculus
A miniature but fully formed human being inside sperm from which a fetus was formerly believed to develop. In anatomy it is a somatotopical representation – the sensory homunculus of the sensory cortex (located in the post-central gyri), or the …show more content…

It connects with these glands through two distinct pathways. Neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamus produce chemicals that communicate with the anterior pituitary via the blood vessels in the infundibulum. After the inhibiting and releasing hormones travel through the primary plexus and hypophyseal portal veins, they exit the infundibulum and enter the secondary plexus, another capillary network that is instead located in the anterior pituitary. There they diffuse out into the cells and initiate the production of specific hormones – either tropins (which incite other endocrine glands to release their hormones) or not tropic. Neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamus produce chemicals that communicate with the posterior pituitary via, again, the infundibulum. The hormones travel the short distance through the axon in vesicles, to be stored in the axon terminals of the posterior pituitary. Action potential produced upon stimulation of the neurosecretory cells initiate release of the stored hormones into a capillary network

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