L1.2.2.1: Gray Matter

• GRAY MATTER OF THE SPINAL CORD AND SPINAL ROOTS

  ● Looks like a butterfly or the letter H in cross section

  ● Cell bodies — make up most of the internal gray matter

  ● Central canal — surrounded by gray matter and is filled with CSF
• GRAY MATTER OF THE SPINAL CORD AND SPINAL ROOTS

  ● Dorsal (posterior) horns

  ● Anterior (ventral) horns
• GRAY MATTER OF THE SPINAL CORD AND SPINAL ROOTS

  ● Anterior (ventral) horns

  ○ House motor neurons of the somatic (voluntary) nervous system

  ○ Send information out the ventral root
• GRAY MATTER OF THE SPINAL CORD AND SPINAL ROOTS

  ● Both dorsal and ventral roots fuse to form spinal nerves
• GRAY MATTER OF THE SPINAL CORD AND SPINAL ROOTS

  Flaccid paralysis

  - Result of damage to the ventral root

  - Nerve impulses do not reach the muscles affected = no voluntary movement of the muscles is possible