When you touch something hot, your hand

moves away quickly. When you smell

freshly baked bread, your mouth

waters. When a big dog jumps at

you, you start to sweat and your

heart beats faster. Did you

know that your nervous system is

responsible for all these reactions?

The nervous system is a complex

collection of nerves and cells that

carry messages throughout your body and

controls your actions. It has

two major divisions, the central nervous

system and the peripheral nervous system.

The first major division is the central

nervous system. It consists of the

brain and the spinal cord and is.

responsible for interpreting the

incoming sensory information and

issuing orders. You could

say the central nervous system is like

 the system manager or boss.

The brain and spinal cord are the 2 main

organs in the central nervous system. The

brain is the organ responsible for

processing information, making

decisions, and carrying out tasks

such as maintaining

homeostasis, interpreting sensory

information, creating motor responses,

learning, thinking and talking.

These tasks are either conscious or

unconscious processes. The spinal

cord helps transfer sensory information

from sensory receptors in the

body up to the brain. It also

transfers motor information travelling

down from the brain to the motor units.

The spinal cord also operates as a

switchboard for reflexes or movements,

requiring speed. With

reflexes, movements are initiated in

 the spinal cord, not the brain. The

reason for this is that precious time

would be lost if the message had to

travel to and from the brain prior to

triggering the reflex or movement.

The second major division is the

peripheral nervous system. It is made-

up of nerves that travel to and from

the central nervous system. This

system reports any sensory changes to the

brain and spinal cord and carry out

orders. This system reports any

sensory changes to the brain and spinal

cord and carries out orders.

You could say the peripheral nervous

system is like the system employees or

workers. The peripheral nervous system

is further divided into two major

subdivisions, the sensory division

and the motor division. The

sensory division or afferent division

 is made-up of the nerves that travel

towards the brain. The nerves in this

division take information from the

sensory receptors to the central nervous

system, such as the frightened sound

of a dog barking or the wonderful

smell of a fresh homemade meal.

This division gives you a sense of the

world around you. The nerves that travel

away from the central nervous system make

up the motor division or efferent

division. This system sends messages to

your muscles and glands to carry out

orders from the brain. Some of these

orders you do by choice, but other

actions such as your mouth watering when

you smell something delicious or sweating

when you are frightened, are done

unconsciously. The motive

division of the peripheral nervous system

is further divided into two.

 Subdivisions. One is the

somatic nervous system. It is the

subdivision of the motor division that

allows you to consciously control your

skeletal muscles, so

any voluntary movements like brushing

your teeth or swatting a fly off your

arm. The other subdivision is the

autonomic nervous system. This

allows the body to perform tasks that are

not under conscious control.

In other words, it's the system that

regulates involuntary activities

such as digestion, sweating, and your

heartbeat. The autonomic

nervous system also has two parts.

The first part is the sympathetic nervous

system, which is responsible for

responses such as speeding up your heart

rate, constricting your blood vessels and

raising your blood pressure. The 2nd is

the parasympathetic nervous system, which

calms you down once the threat is over.

This includes slowing your heart

rate, which allows you to relax.

Did You Know?

Spinal cord injuries are very common and

have life changing effects on people who

develop such injuries.

Spinal cord injuries can leave you with

no feeling or control of your

body below the injury site.

In a spinal injury that is classified

as complete, you lose all

sensory and motor function below the

sight of the injury. In

a case that is classified as

incomplete, you only lose partial

sensory and motor control.

Car accidents and falls are the leading

causes of spinal injuries, but

diseases such as cancer,

 arthritis, osteoporosis

and inflammation of the spinal cord also

lead to spinal cord injuries.

Health care professionals conduct a

number of physical response and

medical tests to diagnose spinal

injuries. Also,

X-rays, CT scans and

Mris are commonly used to diagnose

spinal injuries.

According to the Mayo Clinic, though it

is currently not possible to medically

repair damage to the spinal cord,

treatments to manage the condition and

stop further damage include

prosthesis, electrical

stimulation and medication. The

nervous system has many functions. Two of

its main functions are first, it

detects changes inside and outside the

body. This happens because of the

 sensories receptors that exist all over

the body. Most are concentrated in the

sensory organs such as the eyes,

ears, tongue, nose and

skin. Second, the nervous system

also interprets the information it

receives from the sensory receptors

and sends orders to the muscles and

glands and effects a response,

for example, if someone throws the ball

your way. You see the ball with your

eyes, your brain gives you the order to

catch it, and then you move your arm to

catch it. This description simplifies

the way the nervous system operates, but

in fact the nervous system contains

billions of cells that carry out

countless functions every day.

Your body systems interact with

and depend on one another. The

brain receives information from many

organs and sends signals to these

organs to function properly.

Therefore, the nervous system is

associated with a number of

body systems.

Including. The skeletal.

Cardiovascular, Muscular.

Endocrine. Lymphatic,

respiratory, digestive,

reproductive, and urinary

systems.