CLASSIFICATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

1. Central Nervous System (CNS)

• includes the brain and spinal cord
• integrative and control center

2. Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

• includes the cranial and peripheral nerves
• communication lines between the CNS and the rest of the body
• divided into 2: afferent (sensory) and efferent (efferent)

EFFERENT (MOTOR) DIVISION

A. Somatic nervous system
• voluntary
• conducts impulses from CNS to skeletal muscles
B. Autonomic nervous system
• involuntary
• composed of nerves, ganglia, plexuses
• innervates smooth muscles of viscera, cardiac muscles, blood vessels and exocrine glands
• only needs very low frequency of stimulation for full activation
• Functions:
1. Maintain homeostasis
2. Regulates daily requirements and needs of the body without conscious control

ANATOMIC DIVISION OF THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

1. Sympathetic
2. Parasympathetic
3. Enteric NS
• composed of neurons located in the walls of the GIT
• consists of the myenteric plexus (Auerbach) and submucosal plexus (Meissner)
• includes inputs from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system

Sympathetic Parasympathetic
Spinal roots of Origin Thoracic (T1-T12) Cranial nerves 3,7,9,10
(Outflow) Lumbar (L1-L5) Sacral nerves 2,3,4

Location of Ganglia Paravertebral chains Organs innervated

Prevertebral ganglia
Preganglionic fibers Short Long
Postganglionic fibers Long Short
Preganglionic
Neurotransmitter Acetylcholine Acetylcholine
Receptor Nicotinic Nicotinic

Postganglionic
Neurotransmitter Norepinephrine/ ACh Acetylcholine
Receptor Alpha, Beta/ Muscarinic Muscarinic

Function Flight or Fight Rest and Digest

Action is diffuse and widespread
Functions as a unit and often
discharges as a complete unit
(“mass discharge”)
Not essential to life
Action is discrete and localized
Not a functional entity and never
discharges as a complete system
Essential to life
NEUROTRANSMITTER ASPECTS OF THE ANS
I. CHOLINERGIC
A.Cholinergic transmission : Acetylcholine (Ach)
- all preganglionic neurons
- all parasympathetic postganglionic neurons
- some sympathetic postganglionic neurons (sweat glands, pilomotor muscle, blood vessels)
Synthesis: acetyl-COA + choline
Rate-limiting step: transport of choline into nerve terminals
Storage: actively transported into vesicles for storage
Release: requires Ca++; Ca++ interacts with several membrane proteins (synaptobrevin, synaptotagmin, SNAP’s) resulting to fusion
of the vesicle membrane with the nerve-ending membrane and opening of a pore into the synapse and release the stored Ach.
Termination of action: Acetylcholinesterase action

B. Receptors: Cholinoceptors
~ responds to acetylcholine and its analogs
1.Muscarinic receptors
~ respond to muscarine and Ach
~ found in all effector cells
2. Nicotinic
~ responds to nicotine but not to muscarine
~ found in the synapse between the pre- and post-ganglionic neurons

II. ADRENERGIC
A.Adrenergic transmission: Norepnephrine (NE)
- all sympathetic postganglionic neurons EXCEPT eccrine sweat glands and blood vessels in skeletal muscle (Ach), blood
vessels in the kidney (dopamine)
Synthesis: Tyroxine is hydroxylated to DOPA (dihydroxyphenylalanine), decarboxylated to Dopamine, and (inside the vesicle)
hydroxylated to NE by dopamine- -hydoxylase
Storage: transported into vesicles
Release: same as Ach
***After release NE diffuses out of the cleft or reuptaken by NET
***NE can also be metabolized by MAO, catechol-O-methyl-transferase (COMT) to metanephrine, normetanephrine and VMA, which
can be excreted.

B. Receptors: Adrenoceptors
1.Alpha – Alpha1 and Alpha 2
2.Beta – Beta1-3
3.Dopamine – D 1-4; a subclass of adrenoceptors but have a different distribution and function