Medicine and Surgery

Contents: The somatosensory system. Somatic sensitivity. Peripheral receptors. Afferent somatic systems. Cortical areas involved in somatic sensitivity. Psychophysics of pain. Peripheral and central nervous mechanisms of pain. Analgesia. The Retina visual system. The visual field. Visual pathways. Parvo and magno cells. Primary visual cortex and the extrastriate areas. The stereopsis. The perception of colors. The "where" and "what" pathways in vision. Visual psychophysics. The Cochlea hearing system. Central acoustic pathways. Auditory areas of the cerebral cortex. Perception and localization of sounds. Taste receptors, central structures. Olfactory receptors, central structures. General organization of motor systems. Muscles and motor units. Voluntary movements and reflexes. Motor control and internal models. Spinal reflexes. Muscle tone. The vestibular system and vestibular reflexes. Otolith organs. Vestibular-ocular reflex. Vestibulospinal reflexes. Posture control. Postural tone. Control of the orientation of the head, of the body and maintenance of balance. The cortical control of voluntary movement. Premotor and motor areas of the cerebral cortex. Motor descending pathways. The posterior parietal cortex. Basal ganglia. The cerebellum. The cerebellar cortex. The spino-cerebellar and olive-cerebellar systems. The cerebellar nuclei. Cortico-ponto-cerebellar systems. The cerebello-talamo-cortico systems. The cerebellum and motor learning. Locomotion. Biomechanics of locomotion. Neural control of locomotion. Eye movements. Saccadic eye movements, vergence movements, slow pursuit movements. Vestibulo-ocular reflex, opto-kinetic reflex, nystagmus. The associative areas of the cerebral cortex. Prefrontal, temporal and parietal areas. Cingulate areas of the cortex. Sleep-wake cycle. The neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms underlying the sleep-wake cycle. The electroencephalogram. Consciousness and its states. Hemispheric dominance. Language and other higher functions. Memory and learning. Elements of the history of neurophysiology.

Cellular biological functions and biochemistry, and the anatomy of the nervous system

‘Principi di Neuroscienze’ Kandel et al., Casa Ed Ambrosiana; ISBN 978-8808-18445-0. ‘Fisiologia medica’ Conti, Edi Ermes, Vol 1; ISBN 9788870513462.

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