Nervous System
Nervous System
Nervous System
MB Samad
Functions of the nervous system
• Sensation. The first major function of the nervous system is sensation
—receiving information about the environment to gain input about
what is happening outside the body (or, sometimes, within the body).
• The sensory functions of the nervous system register the presence of
a change from homeostasis or a particular event in the environment,
known as a stimulus.
• The senses we think of most are the “big five”: taste, smell, touch,
sight, and hearing.
Functions of the nervous system
• Sensation. The stimuli for taste and smell are both chemical
substances (molecules, compounds, ions, etc.), touch is physical or
mechanical stimuli that interact with the skin, sight is light stimuli, and
hearing is the perception of sound, which is a physical stimulus similar
to some aspects of touch.
• There are actually more senses than just those, but that list
represents the major senses. Those five are all senses that receive
stimuli from the outside world, and of which there is conscious
perception.
Functions of the nervous system
• Response. The nervous system produces a response on the basis of
the stimuli perceived by sensory structures. An obvious response
would be the movement of muscles, such as withdrawing a hand from
a hot stove, but there are broader uses of the term. The nervous
system can cause the contraction of all three types of muscle tissue.
• For example, skeletal muscle contracts to move the skeleton, cardiac
muscle is influenced as heart rate increases during exercise, and
smooth muscle contracts as the digestive system moves food along
the digestive tract.
Functions of the nervous system
• Response. Responses also include the neural control of glands in the
body as well, such as the production and secretion of sweat by the
eccrine and merocrine sweat glands found in the skin to lower body
temperature.
• Responses can be divided into those that are voluntary or conscious
(contraction of skeletal muscle) and those that are involuntary
(contraction of smooth muscles, regulation of cardiac muscle,
activation of glands). Voluntary responses are governed by the
somatic nervous system and involuntary responses are governed by
the autonomic nervous system, which are discussed in the next
section.
Functions of the nervous system
• Integration. Stimuli that are received by sensory structures are
communicated to the nervous system where that information is processed.
This is called integration. Stimuli are compared with, or integrated with, other
stimuli, memories of previous stimuli, or the state of a person at a particular
time. This leads to the specific response that will be generated. Seeing a
baseball pitched to a batter will not automatically cause the batter to swing.
• The trajectory of the ball and its speed will need to be considered. Maybe the
count is three balls and one strike, and the batter wants to let this pitch go by
in the hope of getting a walk to first base. Or maybe the batter’s team is so far
ahead, it would be fun to just swing away.
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
• The somatic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for conscious
perception and voluntary motor responses. Voluntary motor response
means the contraction of skeletal muscle, but those contractions are
not always voluntary in the sense that you have to want to perform
them.
• Some somatic motor responses are reflexes, and often happen
without a conscious decision to perform them. If your friend jumps
out from behind a corner and yells “Boo!” you will be startled and you
might scream or leap back.
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
• The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for involuntary
control of the body, usually for the sake of homeostasis (regulation of
the internal environment). Sensory input for autonomic functions can
be from sensory structures tuned to external or internal
environmental stimuli.
• The motor output extends to smooth and cardiac muscle as well as
glandular tissue. The role of the autonomic system is to regulate the
organ systems of the body, which usually means to control
homeostasis.
Functional Divisions in the Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) continued….
• Bipolar neurons: Sensory neurons that have two processes coming off the
soma, one dendrite and one axon. They are part of the sensory pathways
for smell, sight, taste, hearing and vestibular functions.
• Pseudounipolar neurons: Sensory neurons that have one process that
splits into two branches, forming the axon and dendrite.