1.

Nervous coordination

Nervous coordination is the coordination carried out by the nervous system. This
system is made up of nerve tissue whose cells, called neurons, are capable of
transmitting information through nerve impulses.

1.1 Neurons

Neurons are divided into three parts: the cell body, the dendrites and the axon.

The cell body contains the nucleus and other organelles.

Dendrites are short, branch-like projections.
The axon is a longer projection. It ends in a series of slender branches which widen
slightly at the tip and are called axon terminals.

In general, axons are protected by a white substance called myelin. The axons of
various neurons sometimes group together to form nerve fibres, and these in turn can
group together to form nerves.
1.2 Transmitting a nerve impulse

Neurons are connected to each other. The place where one neuron connects to another is
called a synapse.

A nerve impulse is kind of like an electrical current, or an electrical signal, which is

transmitted along the neuron membrane and then on to other neurons through synapses.

The neuron that transmits the message is called the transmitted neuron, and the neuron
that receives the message is called the receptor neuron.

In the majority of synapses, the transmitter and receptor neurons are not in physical
contact with each other. There is actually a small gap between them (called the
synaptic cleft), and the message is transmitted from one to the other by a series of
chemical substances called neurotransmitters, which are stored in the axon
terminals.

In this type of synapse, the nerve impulse is transmitted from the axon of the
transmitter neuron to a dendrite, the cell body or the axon of the receptor neuron.

Nerve impulse transmission across a synapse

Nerve impulse transmission across a synapse can be summed up as follows:

1) The nerve impulse which has been transmitted along the membrane of the
transmitter neuron reaches the end of its axon.
2) At the end of the axon, the arrival of the nerve impulse causes
neurotransmitters to be released into the synaptic cleft.
3) Neurotransmitters bind to the membrane of the receptor neuron and generate a
new nerve impulse.
4) The new nerve impulse is transmitted along the membrane to the axon, where
the whole process is repeated.