Neuroanatomy
Fall 2012
Mary Hurley - hurleymi@dyc.edu - 829-8109 - ALT 225
text: Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases by Hal Blumenfeld MD PhD
Sinauer publishing company
Format:
Class is a mixture of internet weekly online reading assignments and questions that
are posted on campus.dyc.edu under biology courses, and on-campus labs.
The labs are on the Friday afternoon of ‘senior day’, time and location to be
announced by email.
The last meeting of the semester will be an oral presentation of a case study or a
neurological disorder presented by each student
Assessment:
Answers are graded and the case study is worth 50% of the grade
Hint for reading assignments - there is a section at the end of each chapter called
brief anatomical study guide that gives a summary of most of the reading
assignments, that will help with reading if you look at it first!
Sept. 6 - lab #1 - external anatomy of the brain and spinal cord - time and room tba
Week of:
Sept. 16 chapter 2 - Neuroanatomy Overview
Basic macroscopic organization of the nervous system; CNS gray matter and white
matter; Motor systems; Somatosensory systems; Stretch reflex
chapter 4 - Introduction to Clinical Neuroradiology
Imaging planes; Computerized tomography; Magnetic resonance imaging;
Neuroangiography
Sept. 23 chapter 5 - Brain and Environs
Blood-brain barrier; Headache; Intracranial mass lesions; Elevated cranial pressure;
Brain herniation; Head trauma; Intracranial hemorrhage; Hydrocephalus; Brain
tumors; Infectious disorders
Sept. 30
chapter 6 - Corticospinal tract and other motor pathways
Motor Cortex, Sensory Cortex, etc.; Basic anatomy of the spinal cord; Spinal cord
blood supply; General organization of the motor systems; Lateral corticospinal tract;
Autonomic nervous system; Upper motor neuron versus lower motor neuron
lesions; Weakness patterns and localization
Oct. - Lab #2 - internal anatomy of the brain and spinal cord
Oct. 7
Chapter 7 - Somatosensory pathways
Main somatosensory pathways; Posterior column-medial lemniscal pathway;
Spinothalamic tract and other anterolateral pathways; Somatosensory cortex;
Central modulation of pain; The thalamus; Sensory loss: patterns and localization;
Spinal cord syndromes; Anatomy of bowel, bladder, and sexual function
Chapter 8 - Spinal nerve roots
Dermatomes and myotomes; Disorders of nerve, neuromuscular jucnction, and
muscle; Back pain; Radiculopathy; Cauda equina syndrome
Oct. 14
Chapter 10 - Cerebral hemispheres and vascular supply
Review of main functional areas of cerebral cortex; Circle of Willis: anterior and
posterior circulations; Anatomy and vascular territories of the three main cerebral
arteries; Clinical syndromes of the three cerebral arteries; Watershed infarcts;
Transient ischemic attack and other; Ischemic stroke: mechanisms and treatment
Chapter 11 - Visual system
Eyes and retina; Optic nerves, optic chiasm, and optic tract; Lateral geniculate
nucleus and extrageniculate pathways; Optic radiations to primary visual cortex;
Visual processing inthe neocortex; Assessment of visual disturbances; Localization
of visual field defects
Oct. 21
Chapter 12 - Brainstem I
Sensory and Motor organization of the cranial nerves; Functions and course of the
cranial nerves; CNI; CNII; CNIII, IV, VI; CNV; CNVII; CNVIII; CNIX; CNX; CNXI; CNXII;
Review: cranial nerve combinations;
Chapter 13 - Brainstem II
Extraocular muscles, nerves, and nuclei; Diplopia; Pupillary abnormalities;
Supranuclear control of eye movements
Oct. 28
Chapter 14 - Brainstem III
Cerebellar circuitry; Reticular formation and related structures; the consciousness
system; Widespread projection systems of brainstem and forebrain; Anatomy of the
sleep-wake cycle; Coma and related disorders; Reticular formation: motor, reflex,
and autonomic systems; Vertebrobasilar vascular disease
Chapter 15 - Cerebellum
Cerebellar lobes, peduncles, and deep nuclei; Cerebellar output pathways;
Cerebellar input pathways; Clinical findings and localization of cerebellar lesions
Nov. 1 - Lab - Pathways
Nov. 4
Chapter 16 - Basal ganglia
Basic three-dimensional anatomy of the basal ganglia; Inupt, output, and intrinsic
connections of the basal ganglia; Parallel basal ganglia pathways for general
movement, eye movement, cognition, and emotion; Ansa lenticularis, lenticular
fasciculus, and the fields of forel; Movement disorders; Huntington's disease;
Chapter 17 - Pituitary and hypothalamus
Overall anatomy of the pituitary and hypothalamus; Important hypothalamic nuclei
and pathways; Endocrine functions; pituitary adenoma and related disorders;
diabetes insipidus and siadh
Nov. 11
Chapter 18 - Limbic system
Overview of limbic structures; Olfactory system; Hippocampal formation and other
memory-related structures; Memory disorders; The amygdala: emotions, drives,
and other functions; Other limbic pathways; Seizures and epilepsy; Anatomical and
neuropharmacological basis of psychiatric disorders
Chapter 19 - Higher-order cerebral function
The mental status exam; Unimodal and heteromodal association cortex; Principals
of cerebral locaaliation and lateralization; The dominant hemisphere: language
processing and related functions; Broca's aphasia; Wernicke's aphasia; Other
syndromes related to aphasia; Nondominant hemisphere: spatial processing and
lateralized attention; hemineglect syndrome
Nov. 18
Chapter 19 continued The frontal lobes: anatomy and functions of an enigmatic brain region; Frontal lobe
disorders; Visual association cortex: higher-order visual processing; Disorders of
higher-order visual processing; Auditory hallucinations; The consciousness system
revisited; Attentional disorders; Delirium and other acute mental status disorders;
Dementia and other chronic mental status disorders
Nov. 22 - student presentations