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General Justification:

The Speech Therapy Degree, as a healthcare qualification, teaches in its core courses the structure and function of organs related to voice, speech, and language. This prepares students to address clinical subjects and perform rigorous professional work based on scientific knowledge. Speech therapists prevent, detect, evaluate, diagnose, and treat speech, voice, language, and swallowing disorders across all age groups, in addition to conducting scientific research. They must have knowledge of the sensory, motor, and cognitive nervous systems to understand, diagnose, treat, prevent, and research disorders affecting voice, speech, and language.

ANATOMY BLOCK

1. ANATOMY OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

1.1 - Anatomical Organization of the Nervous System

• Concept and parts of the nervous system
• Central and peripheral nervous system
• Diencephalon structure
• Mesencephalon structure
• Spinal cord structure
• Coverings of the nervous system: meninges
• Ventricles and cerebrospinal fluid

1.2 - Telencephalon

• Morphology: sulci and gyri, lobes
• General structure of the cerebral cortex
• Functional areas of the cerebral cortex
• Morphology and functional relationships of subcortical nuclei
• Limbic system

1.3 - Brain Neural Pathways

• Intrahemispheric white matter
• Functional anatomy of language and speech pathways
• Ascending and descending projection pathways

2. PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AND CRANIAL NERVES. SENSE ORGANS.

• Structure and organization of the peripheral nervous system
• Autonomic nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic
• Nervous control of respiratory muscles
• Cranial nerves for olfaction (olfactory nerve)
• Functional structure of the sense of vision (optic nerve and optic pathway)
• Ocular nervous control (Cranial Nerves III, IV, and VI)
• Functional structure of hearing and balance (vestibulocochlear nerve)
• Nervous control of masticatory function and facial expression (trigeminal nerve and facial nerve)
• Nervous control of swallowing and articulatory function (glossopharyngeal nerve and hypoglossal nerve)
• Nervous control of phonatory function (vagus nerve)

PHYSIOLOGY BLOCK

3. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 3.1 - Functional Organization of the Nervous System

• Functional parts of the nervous system: sensory, motor, integration
• Levels of functional organization of the nervous system: medullary, subcortical, and cortical
• Neuronal electrical phenomena: ionic transport across the neuronal membrane, membrane potentials and action potentials, propagation of action potential. Nerve conduction and conduction velocity.
• Synaptic transmission: functional organization of chemical synapses. Functional characteristics of chemical synapses. Neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Synaptic receptors.
• Neuronal circuits.

3.2 - Physiology of Cerebral Electrical Activity

• Cerebral electrical activity. Electroencephalogram.
• Regulation of brain activity by reticular systems of the brainstem
• Neuro-hormonal control of brain activity
• Physiology of sleep: Sleep stages and functional characteristics. Physiological effects of sleep.

3.3 - Higher Functions of the Cerebral Cortex: Intellectual Functions

• Functional organization of the neocortex
• Functions of the frontal lobe: attention, conceptual association, consciousness, thinking, interpretation of reality, social filter, personality traits.
• Associative symbolic function of the Wernicke area.
• Functions of the parieto-occipito-temporal cortex (POT) in the dominant and non-dominant hemisphere.
• Lateral dominance of language. Roger Sperry's experiments.
• Functions of the corpus callosum: interhemispheric relationship
• Learning and memory.

3.4 - Physiology of Head Somatic Sensitivity

• Functional organization of the somatosensory system: types of sensory receptors and transduction. Characteristics and classification of sensory nerve fibers
• Physiology of mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, and nociceptors of the head
• Physiology of proprioceptors of the temporomandibular joint
• Somatosensory pathway: physiology of the spinal trigeminal nucleus, sensory trigeminal nucleus, and mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus. Integration of somatosensory information: role of primary and secondary somatosensory cortex.

3.5 - Physiology of the Motor Control System: Muscle Activity and Segmental Control

• Functional organization of smooth skeletal muscle
• Mechanism of muscle contraction: skeletal muscle vs. smooth muscle.
• Physiology of the neuromuscular junction. Motor unit.
• Segmental control of muscle activity: proprioceptive receptors of muscles and tendons. Neuronal circuits or reflex arcs. Reflex activity
• Bucofonatory reflexes: swallowing reflex, sneezing reflex, coughing reflex
• Head reflexes: corneal or palpebral reflex, direct and consensual pupillary reflex, accommodation reflex.

3.6 - Physiology of the Motor Control System: Suprasegmental Motor Control

• Motor cortex: functional organization. Ideation, planning, and execution of voluntary movements.
• Basal ganglia: functional organization. Planning and execution of automatic movements.
• Cerebellum: functional organization. Coordination of movements.

3.7- Physiology of Nervous Control of Voice and Speech

• Functional organization of nervous control of the larynx
• Functional characteristics of sensory innervation of the larynx
• Functional characteristics of segmental control of the larynx: role of the ambiguous nucleus and premotor laryngeal nuclei
• Functional organization of nervous control of speech
• Speech motor program: articulatory and neuronal events
• Role of motor cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum in speech production.

3.8 - Higher Functions of the Cerebral Cortex: Language

• Functional organization of cortical areas involved in language
• Mechanisms of language perception and comprehension
• Motor control mechanisms in language emission

4. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SENSE ORGANS 4.1 - Sense of Vision

• Eye physiology. Accommodation control. Neural control of pupil diameter. Visual acuity. Visual field.
• Physiology of the retina: pigmented epithelium. Photoreceptors and phototransduction. Function of retinal neurons.
• Physiology of optic pathways: main characteristics
• Central integration of visual information: functional organization of the visual cortex.

4.2 - Sense of Hearing

• Physiology of the external ear: capture and amplification of sound waves
• Physiology of the middle ear: physiology of the transmission system. Tympanic or stapedial reflex. Tympanometry and impedance audiometry.
• Physiology of the inner ear: functional organization of the cochlea and auditory transduction. Cochlear amplifier. Endocochlear potential. Discrimination of sound frequencies and intensities.
• Physiology of the auditory pathway: function of the cochlear nuclei, superior olivary complex, and inferior colliculus. Functions of the medial geniculate body of the thalamus
• Physiologyof the auditory cortex: analysis of sound wave frequencies and intensities. Auditory memory
• Examination of auditory sensitivity. Audiometry.