00:00Welcome to Two Minute Neuroscience, where I simplistically explain neuroscience topics
00:03in two minutes or less.
00:04In this installment I will discuss the exterior of the spinal cord.
00:08The spinal cord is one of the two main components of the central nervous system, the other being
00:11the brain.
00:12It receives all of the sensory information from the periphery of the body and carries
00:16it to the brain, and also contains motor neurons that supply the muscles we use to move around.
00:20Neurons carrying sensory information enter the back of the spinal cord as dorsal rootlets,
00:24which all emerge from a single dorsal root.
00:26The cell bodies of these sensory neurons are contained in a cluster of cell bodies called
00:30a dorsal root ganglion.
00:32Motor nerves leave the front of the cord as ventral rootlets and come together to form
00:36a ventral root.
00:37The dorsal and ventral roots merge together to form the spinal nerves.
00:42The spinal cord is divided into segments, each of which gives rise to a pair of spinal nerves.
00:47There are 31 segments named for their location.
00:49There are 8 cervical segments, 12 thoracic segments, 5 lumbar segments, 5 sacral segments, and 1
00:59coccygeal segment.
01:02The spinal cord leaves the skull through an opening called the foramen magnum, and travels
01:06down the vertebral column, ending in a pointed structure called the conus medullaris.
01:10The cord is surrounded by a membrane called the dural tube, but the cord ends before the
01:14dural tube, and the spinal nerves that leave the cord from some lumbar and sacral segments
01:18have to travel down through the dural tube to reach their site of exit from the vertebral
01:22canal.
01:23This leaves a portion of the dural tube that does not contain the spinal cord but is filled
01:26with spinal nerves.
01:27It is from this area, known as the lumbar cistern, that cerebrospinal fluid is sampled as a part
01:31of a lumbar puncture or spinal tap.
01:33It is done here because there is less chance of the cord being damaged by the insertion of
01:37a needle.
01:37The nerves in the lumbar cistern fan out like a horse's tail and are resultantly called
01:41the cauda equina, which means horse's tail in Latin.
01:45There are two locations along the cord that are slightly enlarged, the cervical and lumbar
01:49enlargements, because these parts of the cord contain more neurons in order to supply
01:52the limbs.
01:53An extension of the meninges called the phylum terminale extends from the end of the cord
01:57to the tailbone to anchor the cord in place.