AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching aims to make the student acquire adequate knowledge about the organization of the human Nervous System, paying special attention to all the structures involved in understanding and generating language.

TEACHING METHODS

The teaching activity is organized in lectures for a total amount of time of 10 hours. During these lectures all the issues the student has to know for the final exam will be explained and discussed with the help of visual aids.

Pursuant to L.170/10 “New Regulations on Specific Learning Disorders in Schools”, support services are in place for students with Specific Learning Disorders (SAD), disabilities or other educational needs, through the “Support Services Sector for disabilities and for students with SAD”. These students are encouraged to contact the lecturer and the School's disability contact person, Prof. Nicola Girtler (nicolagirtler@unige.it), at the beginning of the course to agree on possible teaching modalities that, while respecting the objectives of the course, take into account individual learning patterns.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Introduction to the study of the Nervous System.
General organization of the Nervous System.
The meninges and the ventricles.
The Spinal Cord (fundamentals): external and internal structure. Organization of the spinal nerves.
The brainstem: external and internal structure. Major nuclei of the brainstem. The midbrain tectum. The reticular formation. Organization of the cranial nerves.
The cerebellum (fundamentals): external and internal structure. Nuclei and cerebellar cortex.
The diencephalon: organization of the thalamus (brief overview of the hypothalamus, subthalamus, and epithalamus).
The Telencephalon: external configuration (lobes, sulci, and gyri). Structure of the telencephalic cortex. The telencephalic nuclei. Organization of the white matter. Overview of the limbic system. The hippocampus. Functional subdivision of the telencephalon. Brodmann areas. Hemispheric asymmetries (fundamentals).
Afferent systems. Receptors for exteroceptive and proprioceptive sensation and the general sensory pathways. Special senses: the eye and optic pathways (basics), the auditory pathway.
Efferent systems. Motor control pathways: corticobulbar and corticospinal tracts; basal ganglia.
Blood supply to the brain.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

One of the following Anatomy texts of your choice:
Tortora, Nielsen - Principi di Anatomia Umana – Editrice Ambrosiana
Martini, Timmons, Tallitsch – Anatomia Umana - EdiSes
Saladin - Anatomia Umana - Piccin

To further investigate the Neuroanatomy part:
FitzGerald Neuroanatomia - Mtui, Gruener, Dockery - Edra

The slides used during the lectures are downloadable in PDF format from AulaWEB.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam

ASSESSMENT METHODS

During the exam, the knowledge and understanding of the structures of  the human nervous system and how they work together, as well as the communication skills used by the student, will be assessed.