The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage

What The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage covers

The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage is examined in all three written papers — the specification states that Components 01, 02 and 03 can each assess content from any of the five modules, so nothing is confined to one paper. It covers organisation of the nervous system and nervous tissue, the structure and function of the human brain, the structure of motor, sensory and relay neurones, resting potential and the action potential, synapses and the integration of responses, reflexes, reaction times and their investigation, brain scans and the consequences of nervous system damage and drugs, brain function and dependency.

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Organisation of the nervous system and nervous tissueRecall questions on the central and peripheral nervous systems, somatic and autonomic pathways, the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions and their neurotransmitters and effects, grey and white matter in the spinal cord, myelin, dorsal root ganglia, and calculating magnification.Open →
• The structure and function of the human brainRecall questions on the cerebrum and cerebral cortex, the cerebellum and the effects of damaging it, the medulla oblongata and why damage there is fatal, the hypothalamus and its homeostatic roles, and the hormones of the posterior and anterior pituitary.Open →
• The structure of motor, sensory and relay neuronesRecall questions on dendrites, dendrons and axons, the structure of motor, sensory and relay neurones, organelles in the cell body, Schwann cells, myelin and nodes of Ranvier, the axon membrane, synaptic knobs, and what electron micrographs of neurones reveal.Open →
• Resting potential and the action potentialRecall questions on the resting potential of about −70 mV and the sodium-potassium pump, threshold, depolarisation as positive feedback, repolarisation and hyperpolarisation, the all-or-nothing principle, refractory periods, saltatory conduction along myelinated axons, and calculating conduction speed.Open →
• Synapses and the integration of responsesRecall questions on synaptic structure, calcium ions and neurotransmitter release, acetylcholine and acetylcholinesterase, one-way transmission, excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, spatial and temporal summation, and divergence in integrating responses.Open →
• Reflexes, reaction times and their investigationRecall questions on the reflex arc, reflexes and reactions, the blink, iris and plantar reflexes and the Babinski sign, measuring reaction time with a ruler drop test and its limits, and using Student's t-test with its degrees of freedom to compare groups.Open →
• Brain scans and the consequences of nervous system damageRecall questions on CT, MRI, fMRI and PET scans and the EEG, ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, damage to the hippocampus, Broca's area, Wernicke's area and the hypothalamus, spinal cord injuries, why central neurones do not regenerate, and diagnosing brain death and its ethics.Open →
• Drugs, brain function and dependencyRecall questions on Parkinson's disease and levodopa, the ways drugs alter synaptic transmission, how heroin, cannabis, methamphetamine and alcohol act at synapses, overdose, the dopamine reward pathway, tolerance, physical and psychological dependency, relapse, and the consequences of dependency.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Ischaemic stroke vs Haemorrhagic stroke

  Ischaemic stroke: brain damage caused by a clot blocking an artery, which can be treated with a drug that dissolves the blockage. Haemorrhagic stroke: brain damage caused by a burst vessel bleeding into the brain, which a clot-dissolving drug would make far worse.

• Broca's area damage vs Wernicke's area damage

  Broca's area damage: speech that is slow, effortful and reduced to a few words, although the patient still understands what is said to them. Wernicke's area damage: speech that stays fluent but does not make sense, with the patient unable to understand what is said to them.

• Physical dependency vs Tolerance

  Physical dependency: a state in which the body has adapted to a drug so that stopping it produces unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Tolerance: the need for a larger dose to produce the same effect, because the body has adapted to the drug's repeated presence.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Which two structures make up the central nervous system?

   Model answer

   The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord.

2. 2

   What is the peripheral nervous system?

   Model answer

   It is all the nervous tissue outside the brain and spinal cord, made up of the sensory and motor neurones that connect the central nervous system to receptors and effectors.

3. 3

   Which effectors does the somatic nervous system supply?

   Model answer

   The somatic nervous system supplies skeletal muscle, giving voluntary control of movement.

4. 4

   Which effectors does the autonomic nervous system supply?

   Model answer

   The autonomic nervous system supplies smooth muscle, cardiac muscle and glands.

5. 5

   How does the number of neurones between the central nervous system and the effector differ in somatic and autonomic pathways?

   Model answer

   A somatic pathway uses a single motor neurone running all the way from the central nervous system to the muscle, whereas an autonomic pathway uses two neurones with a synapse in a ganglion between them.

6. 6

   What are the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system?

   Model answer

   The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic and the parasympathetic divisions.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage revision questions

What does The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage cover in OCR A-Level Biology B?

8 subtopics: organisation of the nervous system and nervous tissue, the structure and function of the human brain, the structure of motor, sensory and relay neurones, resting potential and the action potential, synapses and the integration of responses, reflexes, reaction times and their investigation, brain scans and the consequences of nervous system damage and drugs, brain function and dependency. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is The Nervous System and the Identification and Consequences of Damage organised?

By the OCR H422 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.