NERVOUS SYSTEM

– One of the most complex among all the other body systems
– coordinates activities of body systems… enable us to detect and respond to stimuli
STIMULI – changes that occur within or outside the body
– brain; cranial nerves; spinal cord; spinal nerve; ganglia; enteric plexus; sensory receptors.

FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:

1. Receiving Sensory Input – monitor and interpret stimuli
2. Integrating Information – processes sensory input, initiates responses
3. Maintain Homeostasis – detect, respond to and interpret changes in the body
4. Mental Activity – consciousness, learning, memory, thinking
5. Control of Muscles and Glands

STRUCTURE

1. Brain
- Left & rigt hemisphere
- Enclosed by skull
- 10 billion neurons

2. Cranial nerves
- 12 pairs
- OOOTTAFAGVAH
- SSMMBMBSBBMM

NAME SENSORY/MOTOR/BOTH
Olfactory Sensory
Optic Sensory
Oculomotor Motor
Trochlear Motor
Trigeminal Both
Abducens Motor
Facial Both
Acoustic Sensory
Glossopharyngeal Both
Vagus Both
Accessory Motor
Hypoglossal Motor

3. Spinal Cord
- Starts from foramen magnum to Lumbar 2
4. Spinal nerves
- 31 pairs
- Emerges from spinal cord

1|Nervous system
 5. Ganglia
- Small masses of nerve tissue consisting primarily of neuron cell bodies
6. Enteric plexuses
- Network of neurons that regulate the DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
7. Sensory receptor
- DENDRITES of SENSORY neuron
- Specialized cell that monitor changes in external/internal environment

SUBDIVISIONS

I. CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (CNS)

- Brain and Spinal
II. PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (PNS)
- Outside the CNS
- Consist mainly of the nerves that extend from brain and spinal cord

NEURONS

- Nerve cells
- smallest/basic unit of NS
- Excitable
- Transmit messages from one part of the body to another
- receive and transmit electrical (AP or neural impulses) and chemical signals (neurotransmitters)

MAJOR PARTS OF A NEURON:

1) CELL BODY – single nucleus (source of info for protein synthesis)
– the neuron will die if the cell body is removed
2) PROCESSES or FIBERS
 DENDRITES – branched fibers that receive and transmit impulses to the cell
body; TOWARD/AFFERENT
 AXON – transmits impulses from the cell body towards another neuron;
AWAY/EFFERENT
 AXON HILLOCK – area where the axon leaves the neuron’s cell body

Classification of Neurons

A.Structure:

1) MULTIPOLAR NEURONS – many dendrites, one axon (ex: Motor Neurons and CNS Neurons)
2) BIPOLAR NEURONS – one dendrite, one axon (ex: Sensory Organs)
3) PSEUDO-UNIPOLAR NEURONS – single process… periphery and CNS (ex: Sensory Neurons)
B. Functional
1. Sensory/Afferent
2. Motor/efferent
3. Interneurons

Classification of Neurons

A. Structure:
1. Multipolar
2. Bipolar

2|Nervous system
 3. Unipolar

B. Functional
4. Sensory/Afferent
5. Motor/efferent
6. Interneurons

MAJOR PARTS OF A NEURON

1. CELL BODY
2. PROCESSES or FIBERS
 DENDRITES
 AXON
 AXON HILLOCK
I. BRAINSTEM – medulla, pons, midbrain
II. DIENCEPHALON
III. CEREBELLUM
IV. CEREBRUM

3|Nervous system