Dissectible Me 5 minute anatomy

A dermatome is a strip of skin innervated by a single spinal nerve. A dermatome is also a part of the somite that will form the dermis of the skin. How is understanding this anatomy useful? 

What are the differences between grey matter and white matter in the nervous system, anatomically speaking? 

Fascia is classically described as a series of sheets of connective tissue wrapping the body and compartments within it. It holds us together and gives us shape. But what is fascia? 

The embryonic period in humans is the first 8 weeks after fertilisation. What happens during the embryonic period and why is it different to the foetal period?

The anatomy of spinal nerves is rather neat, but can also be confusing. Let me talk about the dorsal and ventral roots, sensory and motor neurones, the spinal nerve and its posterior and anterior rami. 

What anatomy would I include if I only had 5 minutes to talk about forearm? I think I'd group the muscles, movements and nerves together to better understand what movements would be affected by a nerve injury. 

The autonomic nervous system innervates the sino-atrial node and controls the rate of contraction of the heart. What other effects do sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves have on the heart? I can think of two more. 

There are a few anatomy landmarks of the abdomen, some of them bony, that we can palpate and use to understand what structures lie deep to the skin here. We can also use them to divide up the abdomen into either 4 imaginary quadrants or 6 regions to help use describe signs or symptoms to others. 

Let's introduce the anatomy of the airway very briefly by starting at the nose and the mouth and working our way down to the alveoli. 

The sternal angle is an important surface anatomy landmark of the chest, deep to which some major anatomical structures lie.