Difficult A and P Questions

Published on 1st January 2022

No one can say anatomy and physilogy is an easy subject. Especially for our students who need to cover the subject in just 100 hours and when there is a plethora of information out there, often at too advanced a level. A and P is a very complex subject, doctors take 6 years to study and then may take a few more years to specialise. So to get the subject to fit into a level 3 it has been greatly simplified and much left out.

So here are some quesions our students have found difficult and our response.

1.Which part of the autonomic nervous system is responsible for ejaculation? Sympathetic or parasympathetic?

In detail; the thoracolumbar sympathetic as well as the sacral parasympathetic (specifically the SPN) and somatic (Onuf's nucleus) spinal ejaculatory nuclei, play a pivotal role in ejaculation as they integrate peripheral and cerebral signals and sends coordinated outputs to pelvi-perineal anatomical structures

So both are correct, but to simplify because the human body is so complex and to comply with the ITEC syllabus, we have gone with parasympathetic.

2. All the following functions are associated with the spleen, except;

Select one:

is the site of thrombocyte production
is the major site of white blood cell formation
provides a filtration system for blood
is a storage depot for blood

The correct answer is thrombocyte production as they are produced in bone marrow.

3/How many lobes does the liver have?

The correct answer is Anatomically the liver has four lobes: right, left, caudate, and quadrate. The quadrate lobe is located on the inferior surface of the right lobe. The caudate lobe is located between the left and right lobes in an anterior and superior location.