Chapter 12: Nerve Tissue
1. What is a ganglion?
2. What are the names and roles of glia in the PNS?
3. What are the three general categories of neurons?
4. What is the functional difference between an axon and a dendrite?
5. What are the classes of neurons based on the number of processes extending from the cell
body?
6. Which anatomical class do sensory neurons belong to and where are their cell bodies
located?
7. What are the characteristics of the nucleus of a typical neuron?
8. What are Nissl bodies (also called Nissl substance) and what stains reveal Nissl bodies?
9. How can axons be distinguished from dendrites in sections that pass through the cell body?
10. What characteristics of a neuron indicate high levels of anabolic activity?
11. Neurons are said to be “post-mitotic.” What does this mean?
12. What are the histological features of the axon hillock?
13. Where is the initial segment and what it its function?
14. What are periaxoplasmic plaques?
15. What are the three morphological classes of synapses between neurons?
16. Are synapses visible with routine H&E staining?
17. What stain demonstrates the overall shape of some neurons, including the dendrites, axons
and the synapses at the ends of the axon?
18. What are boutons en passant?
19. What are the differences between electrical and chemical synapses?
20. What type of ion channel is situated in the presynaptic membrane?
21. What is porocytosis?
22. What is the purpose of axonal transport?
23. By what means might viruses enter the nervous system?
24. What is the myelin sheath?
25. Do unmyelinated axons have any association with Schwann cells?
26. What is the sheath of Schwann?
27. What is node of Ranvier?
28. What is a Schmidt-Lanterman cleft?
29. What is the relationship of Schwann cells to unmyelinated axons?
30. Where are satellite cells located and what is their function?
31. List the four types of glial cells in the CNS.
32. How does the cytoplasm of CNS glial cells appear with routine histological techniques?
33. What type of glial cell facilitates neuronal migration during the development of the CNS?
34. Which glial cell type has a role in modifying the composition of the extracellular fluid
surrounding neurons (uptake of neurotransmitters and ions) and contributes to the restricted
permeability known as the blood brain barrier?
35. How are oligodendrocytes similar to and different from Schwann cells?
36. What type of glial cell responds to damage to the CNS by proliferating and phagocytosis?
37. What type of modified glial cell forms an epithelium-like lining of the fluid filled cavities of
the CNS and produces cerebrospinal fluid at the choroid plexi?
38. What is the shape of ependymal cells?
39. How does the distribution of voltage gated ion channels compare in myelinated and
unmyelinated axons?
40. What is the importance of the neural crest in terms of the nervous system?
41. What are the various meanings of “nerve fiber?”
42. Which cranial nerves have associated sensory ganglia? See Table 12.1
43. Which categories of peripheral ganglia have synapses? See Table 12.1
44. What are the locations of endoneurium, perineurium, and epineurium?
45. What types of cells may be found in the endoneurium?
46. Which specialized connective tissue constitutes the blood-nerve barrier?
47. Where is the gray matter located in the brain?
48. What are the components of gray matter?
49. What is white matter?
50. What term is given to functionally related bundles of axons in the white matter?
51. Are tracts distinguishable in the brain or spinal cord with routine processing?
52. What is neuropil?
53. What is the location of white matter in the spinal cord?
54. What term applies to groups of nerve cell bodies in the gray matter of spinal cord or deep in
the brain?
55. Where are cell bodies of neurons that synapse upon striated muscle?
56. Where are the cell bodies of sensory neurons located?
57. From outermost to innermost, what are the layers of the meninges that cover the brain and
spinal cord?
58. What is found in the subarachnoid space?
59. How do the contacts between adjacent endothelial cells in brain capillaries differ from that
in other locations?
60. What cell type, in addition to endothelia cells, contributes to the blood-brain barrier?
61. How do most substances (except oxygen, carbon dioxide and lipid-soluble substances) enter
brain tissue from the blood?
62. The blood-brain barrier is ineffective or absent in certain circumventricular organs? What
might these structures be doing?
63. What is Wallerian degeneration?
64. What cellular event accounts for the profound differences in the ability of CNS and PNS
axons to recovery for image?
65. What are the histological indications in the cell body that a neuron’s axon has been
damaged?
66. In the peripheral nervous system, what is the role of Schwann tubes in axonal regeneration?