Under Control (Revision Notes)

The human body is a complex organism

in a constantly changing environment.
brain
The body is kept in a constant state,
called homeostasis, despite this CNS cranial
environment, by two systems:
spinal cord nerves
1. the Nervous System
• nerves connect body to brain PNS
• responds to change quickly
spinal
2. the Endocrine System nerves
• hormones released from glands
into bloodstream
• slow messages
• regulate slow changes (eg
growth)

The Nervous System

- Broken up into two parts:
a) The Central Nervous System (CNS)
which is made up of the brain and the
spinal cord.
b) The Peripheral Nervous System
(PNS) which is made up of nerves
connecting the body to the CNS

Figure 1: The human nervous system

Nerves are thin, white, cord-like organs made

up of cells called neurones. Neurones can be
either
• Motor neurones,which carry messages
from the CNS to muscles or glands,
• Sensory neurones, which carry messages
from cells in sense organs to the CNS, or
• Connecting neurones, which are found
in the brain or spinal cord and connect
sensory and motor neurones together. Nerve Bundles of Neurone
These enable impulses to travel directly nerve fibres
from sensory to motor neurones without
necessarily going first to the brain. This Figure 2: A nerve is made up of bundles
nerve fibres
 occurs in spinal reflexes (or reflex arcs) that are reactions in which the brain plays no part
(eg knee-jerk reflex - see below)

Neurone Structure

Dendrites - strands from the neurone

which carry impulses from neighbouring
cells towards the cell body

Cell body, including a nucleus

Axon (one per cell) - a long strand which

carries impulses away from the cell body
Myelin sheath - a white, fatty
substance which acts as an insulator,
stopping impulse leakage and has the
effect of speeding up impulses

Area where neurone connects to

muscle or sensor

Figure 3: The parts of a neurone

While neurones pass messages to each other, they are not physically in contact. A synapse (where
two neurones meet) is actually a small gap between the two cells. When an impulse reaches the end
of one neurone, chemicals called neurotransmitters are released which cross over the small gap
between the neurones, triggering a new impulse in the next neurone.

4. Enzymes destroy
neurotransmitters. Synapse is
1. Nerve impulse in ready for next impulse
first nerve

3. New impulse in
second nerve

2. Neurotransmitter chemicals
move across gap

Figure 4: Neurotransmitters transfer

the signal from the axon of one neurone
to the dendrite of the next
 The Knee-Jerk Reflex
spinal cord
a pain receptors in skin detect
vertebra
sensory nerve fibre painful stimulus (pin prick)

muscle (effector)
message to brain
motor nerve
fibre

b
stimulus: receptor
sensory nerves
pain (pain receptor)
central nervous
response: system
effector
remove (muscle) motor nerves
hand
Figure 5: The pathway of a reflex action
a) as would occur in the body and b) as a flow chart

If the muscle below the kneecap is hit, a nerve impulse travels down a sensory neurone to the spinal
cord. On reaching the synapse, the impulse is sent in two directions. One impulse is sent up the
spinal cord to the brain. While that is happening, another impulse travels through a connecting
neurone into a motor neurone. This impulse causes a muscle to con tract and the leg moves forward.
In this way, the body reacts before the information gets to the brain.

Other examples of reflexes include

• pupil dilation
• goose bumps
• deep breathing during exercise
• production of saliva when food is placed in the mouth
The sense receptors

Type Function
Skin senses
¥ Free nerve endings Detect pain
¥ Nerve endings around hair Detect movement of body hairs
roots
¥ Meissner's corpuscles (egg Sensitive to light touch and occur near the
shaped) skin's surface
¥ Merkel's discs Also sensitive to light touch and are near the
skin's surface
¥ Pacianian corpuscles Deeper in the skin and detect pressure
¥ Bulbs of Krause Detect cold
¥ Organs of Ruffini Detect heat
The eye The lens focuses light on to the retina which
detects the image
Taste Four types of receptors on the tongue detect
sweet, bitter, salty and sour
Smell Receptors on top of the nasal cavity
Sound The vibrating eardrum connects to the nerve
endings of the inner ear through tiny bones
Balance uses several sense
organs:
¥ Vestibular system Liquid-filled tubes near the inner ear
¥ Nerves attached to muscles and Determine the body's position
joints
 cold receptor pain receptor heat receptor
Hair

Epidermis

Dermis

pressure
receptor
Figure 6: Receptors in the skin

The Senses
The major function of our senses is to make us aware of our surroundings. Animals use special cells
called receptors to collect information about what is going on around them. Receptors can be:
• mechanoreceptors - sensitive to touch, pressure and pain
• photoreceptors - sensitive to light
• chemoreceptors - sensitive to chemicals and used to taste and smell things.
• Thermoreceptors - respond to changes in temperature.

Anything that is detected by a receptor is referred to as a stimulus. Sometimes, receptor cells become
so used to a stimulus that they stop responding to it, even though it is still there. (eg. the first smell of
coffee is very strong, but after a while, you don’t notice it any more) This is called habituation.

Our five senses are

1. Touch - this includes touch, pressure, heat, cold and pain, with different receptors for each. Areas
with more receptors are more sensitive than areas with few.
2. Vision - the organ for this sense is the eye (most complex sense organ). The eye is ball-shaped,
about 3cm in diameter and is turned by six muscles. Vitreous humour (a transparent jelly) fills out
the eye and gives it shape. The iris (the coloured part of the eye) opens and closes the pupil, and the
cornea, at the front, allows light in. Muscles change the width of the lens to focus images on the
retina at the back of the eye. The blind spot is the area at the back of the eye where the optic nerve
gathers the information from the retina.
fovea
blind spot
optic nerve
cornea

pupil

Layer of retina
iris lens
retina
Figure 7: The structures of the eye

The light receptors in the eye are of two types:

Cones
• form a clear image in bright light
• detect colour. Therefore there are three types of cones (blue, green and red detectors)
• mostly packed into a small area called the fovea, so
the clearest image is formed here. (The fovea is the
spot where light falls when we look directly at
something)
Rods
• form a clear image in dull light
• don’t detect colour

3 & 4. Taste and Smell - Taste buds, which we use to detect

chemicals, are located in the pores on our tongue. When
young, we have about 250 tastebuds per pore, decreasing to
about 90 buds per pore when old. There are four types of
taste bud to detect four di fferent tastes; sour, sweet, bitter
and salty. These are not spread evenly over the tongue’s
surface, so different areas of the tongue taste different Figure 8: Taste areas of the
things. tongue
 All other flavours (eg
raspberry or roast meat) are
frontal sinus not actually tasted, but are
detected by our sense of smell.
sphenoid sinus This is why food can be
smell receptors tasteless if we have a blocked
nasal cavity nose. Before a smell can be
detected, its chemicals must
be dissolved in mucus, which
mouth covers a patch of skin at the
top of the nasal cavity. This
tongue area contains about 600 000
smell receptors, which send
messages to the brain along
epiglottis
the olfactory lobe.

The sense of smell quickly

Figure 9: Structures of tires of any one smell.
the nose Figure 10: Structures of the ear

semi-circular
canals
auditory
nerve
ear flap
hammer
(Pinna)
external ear cochlea
canal stirrup
anvil
tympanic
membrane
(ear drum

eustacian tube
5. Hearing (and Balance) - Sound waves travel in the air and through the outer ear into the ear canal.
The eardrum (in the middle ear) is vibrated by these sound waves and passes the vibrations onto the
inner ear via three tiny bones called ossicles (the hammer, anvil and stirrup). In the inner ear, these
vibrations are detected by a coiled tube (the cochlea). This contains special hair-like nerve cells that
send messages to the brain if they are vibrated.
The eustacian tube, connecting the middle ear to the throat, is used to equalise the pressure
on either side of the eardrum. This is how swallowing causes your ears to ‘pop’ when you go up in
an elevator.
The inner ear also contains the semi-circular canals. These contain a fluid, and hair-like
nerve endings that the brain uses to detect imbalance by their movement. Steady rocking of these
hairs may cause sea- or motion-sickness.
The Central Nervous System
The brain and the spinal cord are covered by a number of membranes called meninges.
Between these membranes are layers of fluid that protects the CNS from impacts. The brain is also
protected by the skull, while the spinal cord has the backbone for protection.
The brain contains two types of tissue:
White matter - myelin covered axons which connect different areas of the brain to the spinal cord
Grey matter - nerve cell bodies, dendrites and cells that nourish the nerve cells.

The brain itself is divided into three main parts:

The brainstem
• connects the spinal cord to the brain
• made up of the medulla oblongata, pons, midbrain, thalamus and hypothalamus
• controls the autonomic nervous system (ie. those actions over which we have no control eg.
peristalsis, breathing and heartbeat.) (see below)

The cerebellum
• behind the brainstem
• responsible for coordination of muscles and balance and also for intricate muscle movement.
 This includes all muscle movements which are learned (eg. walking requires no thought once
we have learned how to do it.

The cerebrum
• 80% of the brain
• divided into two halves or hemispheres
• the cortex (outer few mm of the cerebrum) is made up of grey matter and is deeply folded to
increase its surface area.

movement touch

thought taste

speech vision
hearing

Figure 12: Functions of the cerebrum

The cortex itself has three types of surface area. The motor area sends impulses to the muscles,
while the sensory area receives and interprets impulses from the sensors. The final, most important,
area is the association area, where thought, memory and emotions occur.

The left side of the brain is the controller of the right side of the body and vice versa. Also, the left
half of the cortex is mostly concerned with speech, logic, writing and maths, while the right half is
concerned with artistic ability, emotions and imagination.

Figure 13: Each side of the brain controls the opposite side
of the body. Nerve fibres cross over as they enter the brain.
The Autonomic Nervous System
Controls un-conscious and involuntary movements (eg. the contraction of the cardiac muscles in the
heart, the movement of food through our intestines). It is made up of two parts:
• The Sympathetic Nervous System - which acts during an emergency to try to prevent, or
prepare for, a crisis. In effect, it ‘revs the body up’ (The “Fight or Flight” response)
• The Parasympathetic Nervous System - which acts to conserve the body’s resources by
calming the body down once the crisis has passed. In effect, it is the opposite of the
Sympathetic NS.

Sympathetic System Parasympathetic System

speeds heart slows heart

narrows arteries (to increase blood pressure) widens arteries

widens bronchioles (tubes in lungs) narrows bronchioles

opens eye pupils (increase seeing ability) closes eye pupils

stimulates tear glands (crying helps release tension)

causes flow of saliva

contracts bladder and bowels (lighten the load) relaxes bladder and bowels

causes body hairs to become erect (so body appears

larger)
increases sweating (ready to control body temp from
expected activity)
Figure 14: The opposing effects of the autonomic nervous system
 pineal gland
The Endocrine System hypothalamus
pituitary gland
Made up of nine glands that release hormones
thyroid gland
(chemical messengers) involved in many slow
parathyroid gland
changes to our bodies such as growth, sexual
characteristics and how much glucose is in our
blood. thymus gland
adrenal glands
The pituitary gland is the most important of these as
it not only releases its own hormones, it also controls pancreas
the activities of many other endocrine glands.
The hypothalamus (in the brain) is connected to the ovaries (female)
pituitary and provides a link between the nervous
testes (male)
and endocrine systems.
The ovaries and testes produce hormones that cause
sexual characteristics to develop.
The adrenal glands secrete adrenaline that assists the
autonomic nervous system in the “Fight or Flight”
response to danger. Figure 15: The main endocrine glands
Some
Gland Important HormonesMain Action
Hormone
Pituitary Follicle-stimulating Stimulates the production of eggs in females and
hormone (FSH) sperm in males

Luteinizing Prepares the uterus to receive egg. Stimulates

hormone (LH) ovulation
Prolactin Stimulates milk production
Growth hormone Stimulates bone and muscle growth
Hypothalamus (via Oxytocin Stimulates contraction of the uterus
the pituitary) Vasopressin Controls loss of water via the kidneys
Thyroid Thyroxin Increases body metabolism
Calcitonin Decreases blood calcium
Parathyroid Parathyroid Increases blood calcium
hormone
Adrenal cortex Several different Sugar respiration, salts in the blood and many other
hormones functions
Adrenal medulla Adrenalin Increases body metabolism to cope with stress, etc
(Epinephrine)
Pancreas Insulin Lowers blood sugar, increases storage of glycogen
Glucagon Increases blood sugar, stimulates glycogen
breakdown in liver
Ovaries Progesterone and Controls the growth of uterus walls. Development of
oestrogen female sexual characteristics
Testes Testosterone Production of sperm. Development of male sexual
characteristics
The Pituitary Gland
The hormones of the pituitary gland control so many body activities that it is often referred to
as the ‘master control gland’. Some of its control functions are shown in Fig 15 . In spite of its
importance, the pituitary is only 12 mm by 8mm and has a mass of 0.5 grams. It lies in a bony
hollow in the base of the skull.
The pituitary has two main parts. The rear part (posterior lobe) stores and releases two
hormones made by the hypothalamus. One of these hormones controls the amount of water released
by the kidneys. The other hormone is needed for reproduction. In females it starts the uterus
contracting when the baby is ready to be born. At about the same time it causes the breasts to start
producing milk. In males, it causes sperm to begin to be produced.
The front part of the pituitary (anterior lobe) produces several hormones. Most of these
hormones influence the activity of other hormone-producing glands rather then the body as a whole.
Because some of these hormones have long, complex names, they are often given symbols such as
FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone). There are two important hormones from the front part of the
pituitary that influence the body as a whole. One helps stimulate the making of milk in the breast.
The other, called growth hormone, controls growth in height during childhood and tissue repair
throughout life. Some people are dwarfs due to a lack of this hormone. Others are very tall because
their pituitary has produced too much.

The Pancreas
The pancreas is a flattened organ located behind and slightly below the stomach. Most of the
pancreas (about 98%) is concerned with making digestive enzymes for the small intestine. The
remaining 2% produces two important hormones - insulin and glucagon. These two hormones are
made in about one million tiny specks found in the pancreas called the Islets of Langerhans.
Normally insulin and glucagon work together to keep the amount of glucose sugar in the blood at the
correct level. If the amount of glucose in the blood should rise, say after a meal, then insulin is
secreted into the blood stream. The insulin helps the glucose enter the cells of the body where it can
be used as a source of energy. It also stimulates the muscles and the liver to convert glucose into
glycogen for storage. If, however, the amount of glucose in the blood should fall below the correct
level, then the hormone glucagon is produced. It acts in the opposite way to insulin by stimulating
the liver to change glycogen back into glucose.
If there is too little insulin being produced by the pancreas, the disease diabetes results. The
blood of a person with diabetes can contain plenty of sugar. However, without insulin the sugar
cannot enter the cells to supply energy for the body. The body responds by converting glycogen into
even more glucose. The excess glucose is lost in the urine. The cells of the body lose water to the
blood by osmosis due to the high concentration of glucose in the blood. The body also tries to supply
its energy needs by breaking down fats and proteins. This adds certain toxic substances to the blood
at a faster rate than they can be removed. Without treatment, a person will die of this disease.

The Thyroid and Parathyroid glands

The thyroid is an H-shaped gland with a mass of about 25 grams. It is found just below the
voice box and on either side of the windpipe. The parathyroids are four pea-sized gland on the
surface of the thyroid. The thyroid needs a supply of the element iodine to work. If iodine is not in
the diet, the thyroids swell up producing the disease goitre. The main hormone produced by the
thyroid is called thyroxin. It controls the rate of respiration or energy release. Thyroxin also helps
control growth of many tissues.
The other main hormone from the thyroid assists in the control of the amount of calcium in
the blood. It helps remove excess calcium that may be present. Balancing this is a hormone from the
parathyroid glands. It causes calcium to be lost from the bones if the amount calcium in the blood
should become too low. This hormone also helps calcium be absorbed from the intestines.