Nervous Tissue & the Senses · Conclusion & Assessment
The numbness came first, and nobody asked
You have built seven verdicts. Now lay the nerve chart end to end and give the one that matters: what can the crash fairly be blamed for?
About 60 minutes. Nothing here is sent anywhere; every activity scores itself.
Animation · in production · 2 min 30 s
Seven Findings, Two Maps
The seven chapter findings drop onto an empty chart and split into two stacks: one root on one side, and every long nerve. A calendar under the second stack runs back a year past the crash.
1
Assemble the chart
Seven findings, one per chapter, each one you earned with a verdict. Read them as a single document, then put them in the order a careful clinician would have worked through them.
Stina’s nerve chart · seven findings
| Ch 1 · Pattern | Two patterns after a “clear” crash — every complaint sensory and peripheral. |
|---|---|
| Ch 2 · Exam | Symmetric loss of light touch and vibration — the large myelinated fibers are failing. |
| Ch 3 · Nerve study | Slowed conductionThe transmission of nerve impulses along neurons. and long far-end delays — the signature of failing myelin. |
| Ch 4 · Elimination | Synapse intact — the fault lies along the wire, not at the handoff. |
| Ch 5 · Lab | Anti-MAG IgM antibodies, and numbness that began a year before the crash. |
| Ch 6 · Map | Two maps: an L5 dermatomeA specific area of skin supplied by a single spinal nerve. band on the left, and length-dependent stockings on both feet. |
| Ch 7 · Synthesis | An antibody-associated demyelinating neuropathy, plus a separate root injury. |
Explore
Arrange the Findings
Drag the seven findings into the order a careful clinician would have worked through them.
Check · Multiple Choice
Which finding should first have prompted a blood test?
2
The module verdict — what can the crash be blamed for?
Position A
The crash explains her nerves
An accident injury
One hard impact, one mechanical injury, then pain and numbness. Simple, dated and satisfying — and it is what three clinicians wrote down.
Think: Which of the seven findings would have to be absent for this position to hold?
Position B
Two problems: an injury and a disease
Root injury + neuropathy
A root injury the crash can fairly claim, and a slowly progressive, antibody-associated neuropathy that was already there.
Think: Which one finding, on its own, is enough to make this the working position?
Now give your verdict. Build it from statements that hold up — no writing needed. At the end you’ll see your whole argument in one place.
3
Debrief — what happened, and Chart Clue #8
Reading the two maps together
Read together, the chart separates two maps from the first visit: a clean-edged band on one side that follows a single root, and fading stockings on both feet that follow nerve length. The first fits an injury. The second fits a disease — and a disease does not wait for a car accident to begin.
The tests line up behind the second map: a tuning fork that fails before a pin does, conduction that is slow rather than absent, a synapseThe junction between two neurons where communication occurs. that works, and an antibody against MAG. Anti-MAG antibodies are usually made by a single clone of plasma cellsImmune cells that develop from B cells and produce antibodies., so the next test is a protein electrophoresis. In Stina’s chart, that spike is not found until she is forty.
“The crash was real, and so was her pain. It just got the credit for a disease that was already there.”
Chart Clue #8 · logged
Antibody-Associated Neuropathy
A symmetric, length-dependent, sensory-predominant demyelinating neuropathy with anti-MAG antibodies, present a year before the crash — and a separate L5 root injury the crash can claim.
From Stina’s diary
Early forties · “Ten folders”
“The numbness in my feet is on both sides. The neurologist wrote that down and never wondered about it, because the car accident was there to take the blame.”
4
Self-check and review
Warm up with the self-checks, then take the review. Every item draws on the whole module, and every activity scores itself — nothing is sent anywhere.
Self-check · warm up
Check · Flip Cards
Nervous Tissue Vocabulary: flip each card until every core term is automatic.
Game
Nervous Tissue Crossword
Definitions to terms, across the whole module.
Game
Neuro Word Search
A painless first pass at the vocabulary.
Check · Summary
Key Takeaways: choose the statement that holds in each set.
Review · the whole module
Check · True or False
Module 8 mixed review: fourteen statements, one or two from every chapter, with feedback on each.
Transfer · a new patient
Explore
A New Patient with Numb Feet
Dana, 58, has burning, numb feet and a different nerve study. Choose the work-up, and see where each choice leads.
Challenge · optional
Game
Escape the Neuron
Five locked doors — the neuron, the glia, the spike, the synapse, the map. The last door opens on Chart Clue #8.
Module 9 · The Spinal Cord
The Spinal Cord
An MRI finally finds what is pressing on L5. The surgery goes well. The pain does not leave. The next module opens the spinal cordThe central nervous system structure that relays signals between the brain and body. and asks what keeps hurting after the mechanical problem is fixed.
Reliable information on rare diseases
NORD · NIH GARD · Orphanet · MedlinePlus Genetics: FMF · FMF & AID Global Association · Autoinflammatory Alliance · Global Genes · Amyloidosis Foundation
Stina has one rare disease. In the United States, about 1 in 10 people live with one of the more than 7,000 known rare diseases. These organizations are where patients, families and clinicians go for trustworthy information.
Hop to:
← Familial Mediterranean Fever — case home
All Modules
- Anatomical Language, Membranes & Homeostasis
- Just Enough Chemistry
- The Cell & Its Transport
- Making Cells & Proteins
- The Integumentary System
- The Skeletal System
- The Muscular System
- Nervous Tissue & the Senses
- The Spinal Cord
- The Brain & the Blood–Brain Barrier
- The Autonomic Nervous System
- Special Senses (in developmentThe process of growth and differentiation.)
- The Endocrine System
- Blood
- The Heart
- Blood Vessels
- The Digestive System
- The Respiratory System
- The Urinary System
- Fluids, Electrolytes & Acid–Base Balance
- The Reproductive System
- The Immune System
List of terms
- conduction
- dermatome
- synapse
- plasma cells
- spinal cord
- development