What is the difference between gray matter and white matter in the spinal cord?

Answer 1

The color.

Answer 2

The interior of the spinal cord is made up of neurons, their support cells called glia, and blood vessels. The neurons and their dendrites (branching projections that help neurons communicate with each other) reside in an H-shaped region called "grey matter."

The H-shaped grey matter of the spinal cord contains motor neurons that control movement, smaller interneurons that handle communication within and between the segments of the spinal cord, and cells that receive sensory signals and then send information up to centers in the brain.

Surrounding the grey matter of neurons is white matter. Most axons are covered with an insulating substance called myelin, which allows electrical signals to flow freely and quickly. Myelin has a whitish appearance, which is why this outer section of the spinal cord is called "white matter."

Answer 3

Remember that White matter in the spinal cord is on the outside, grey matter forms an H shape on the inside.

Answer 4

grey matter is the name of the macroscopic appearance of the internal zone that contains de neuronal bodyes or ¨somes¨, also with astrocytes and microglya, and the neuropil( the interstitial interconnections between the bodyes), and the beginning of the axons. Cengrally,we find the eppendimal canal.
The white matter, the external one, includes the axons surounded by the mielinic sheath( created by the oligodendrocytes), with thw afferent and efferent axonic fibers.

Answer 5

the gray matter of the spinal cord has been thought to be softer than the white matter, there is no evidence to support this belief. Because the spinal cord is extremely soft, it has been difficult to measure the mechanical properties of the gray and white matter. The modulis of elasticity of the gray and white matter were measured in situ by using a pipette aspiration method. METHOD: The spinal cord specimens were excised from Japanese white rabbits. Specimens were cut to display the surfaces of axial, frontal, and sagittal sections. The surfaces of the gray and white matter were aspirated using a 0.8-mm-inner-diameter glass pipette while monitoring with a video microscope, and the deformed length in the pipette was measured on a monitor. In each case the modulus of elasticity was calculated by comparing the relationship between the aspiration pressure and aspirated volume of the specimen with that determined by finite element analysis. The moduli of elasticity of the gray and white matter were 3.4+/-1.4 kPa (mean +/- standard deviation) and 3.4+/-0.9 kPa in the axial section, 3+/-0.3 kPa and 3.5+/-0.5 kPa in the frontal section, and 3.5+/-0.9 kPa and 2.8+/-0.4 kPa in the sagittal section, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: No significant difference in modulus of elasticity was shown between the gray and white matter of the spinal in sections made in various directions.

Answer 6

Gray matter refers to the neuronal cell bodies and their dendrites, the short protrusions that communicate with immediately neighboring neurons in the brain. White matter refers to the longer axons, sheathed in a white fat called myelin, that reach out from neurons to more distant regions of the brain

Answer 7

Gray matter is in the brain.

Answer 8

white matter is myelinated. grey matter has no myelination.