NERVOUS SYSTEM

Figure 1.Human Nervous System

Figure 2.Fish Brain Figure 3.Dog’s Nervous System

Figure 4.Bird’s Nervous System Figure 5.Classifications of Nervous System

Nervous System

- The nervous system includes both the Central nervous system and Peripheral nervous system.

Central Nervous System – it is made up of the brain and spinal cord.

• The Brain

Figure 6.Human Brain Anatomy

• Cerebrum - plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought,

language and consciousness also known as cerebral cortex.

It is divided into four main regions or lobes, which cover both hemispheres:

1. Frontal lobe- involved in conscious thought and higher mental functions such as
decision-making.
2. Parietal lobe- involved in integrating sensory information from the various senses, and
in the manipulation of objects in determining spatial sense and navigation.
3. Temporal lobe- involved with the senses of smell and sound, the processing of semantics
in both speech and vision, including the processing of complex stimuli like faces and
scenes, and plays a key role in the formation of long-term memory.
4. Occipital lobe- mainly involved with the sense of sight.
• Cerebellum - plays an important role in balance, motor control, but is also involved in some
cognitive functions such as attention, language, emotional functions.

Figure 7.Cerebellum

• Spinal Cord - the spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue
that extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the
vertebral column.

Figure 8.Spinal Cord

• Reflexes - a reflex is a response or a reaction to a stimulus. It often follows a pathway that

begins at the sensory neuron stimulated by a stimulus and then sending signals to a nerve
center, which in turn, sends signals to the effector cells to carry out an action accordingly.
 Peripheral Nervous System

- It is made up of Cranial and Spinal Nerves.

- Also compose of Autonomic and Somatic Nervous System.

Figure 9.Cranial Nerves

• Cranial Nerves -

12 CRANIAL NERVES

1. Olfactory Nerve – transmits sensory information to your brain regarding smells that you
encounter.
2. Optic Nerve – the sensory nerve involves vision.
3. Oculomotor Nerve – the nerve originates in the front part of your midbrain, which is a part
of your brainstem. It moves forward from that area until it reaches the area of your eye
sockets.
• Muscle Function – provides motor function to four of the six muscles around your
eyes. These muscles help your eyes move and focus on objects.
• Pupil Response – It also helps to control the size of your pupil as it responds to light.
4. Trochlear Nerve – This is the muscle responsible for downward and inward eye movements.
5. Trigeminal Nerve – is the largest of your cranial nerves and has both sensory and motor
functions.
• Ophthalmic – it sends sensory information from the upper part of your face,
including your forehead, scalp, and upper eyelids.
• Maxillary – the division communicates sensory information from the middle part of
your face, including your cheeks, upper lip, and nasal cavity.
 • Mandibular – this division has both a sensory and a motor function. It sends sensory
information from your ears, lower lip, and chin. It also controls the movement of
muscles within your jaw and ear.
6. Abducens Nerve – it controls the muscle that’s associated with eye movement, called the
lateral rectus muscle. This muscle involves outward eye movement.
7. Facial Nerve – provides both sensory and motor functions including
• Moving muscle used for facial expressions as well as some muscles in your jaw
• Providing the sense of taste for most of your tongue
• Supplying glands in your head or neck area, such as salivary glands and tear-
producing glands
8. Vestibulocochlear Nerve – It has sensory functions involving hearing and balance. It consist
of two parts
• Cochlear Portion – Specialized cells within your ear detect vibrations from sound
based off of the sound’s loudness and pitch. This generates nerve impulses that are
transmitted to the cochlear nerve.
• Vestibular Portion – this portion can track both linear and rotational movements of
your head. This information is transmitted to the vestibular nerve and used to adjust
your balance and equilibrium.
9. Glossopharyngeal Nerve
• Sending sensory information from your sinuses, the back of your throat, parts of
your inner ear, and the back part of your tongue.
• Providing a sense of taste for the back part of your tongue
• Stimulating for voluntary movement of a muscle in the back of your throat called
the stylopharyngeus

This nerve originates in a part of your brainstem called the medulla oblongata. It usually
extends into your neck and throat and region.

10. Vagus Nerve

• Communicating sensation information from your ear canal and parts of your throat
• Sending sensory information from organs in your chest and trunk, such as your
heart and intestines
• Allowing motor control of muscles in your throat
• Stimulating the muscles of organs in your chest and trunk, including those that
move food through your digestive tract (peristalsis)
• Providing a sense of taste near the root of your tongue
11. Accessory Nerve
• A motor nerve that controls the muscles in your neck. These muscles allow you to
rotate, flex, and extend your neck and shoulders.
• It’s divided into two parts: spinal and cranial. The spinal portion originates in the
upper part of your spinal cord. The cranial nerves start in your medulla oblongata.
 • These parts meet briefly before the spinal part of the nerve moves to supply the
muscles of your neck while the cranial part follows the vagus nerve.
12. Hypoglossal Nerve – this nerve is responsible for the movement of most of the muscles in
your tongue. It starts in the medulla oblongata and moves down into the jaw, where it
reaches the tongue.

Figure 10.Spinal Nerves

• Spinal Nerves

31 PAIRS OF SPINAL NERVES

• 8 pairs of cervical nerves (C1-C8) nerves emerge from the cervical spine; cervical
means of the neck ( there are 8 cervical nerves, but only 7 cervical vertebra )
• 12 pairs of thoracic (T1-T12) nerves emerge from the thoracic spine; thoracic means of
the chest
• 5 pairs of lumbar (L1-L5) nerves emerge from the lumbar spine; lumbar means the
lower back region
• 5 pairs of sacral (S1-S5) nerves emerge from the sacral bone; sacral means of the
sacrum; the bony plate at the base of the vertebral column
• 1 pair of coccygeal nerve (Co1) emerge from the coccygeal bone; coccygeal means of
the coccyx, the tailbone
 Somatic and Autonomic Nervous System

The ANS controls the connections between the brain, spinal cord, and organs/glands,
whereas the SNS connects external sensory organs through the brain to the muscles.

Figure 11.Central vs. Peripheral Nervous System

• Autonomic Nervous System – is the part of the peripheral nervous system that acts as an
involuntary control system (below the level of consciousness), and controls visceral
functions.

Purpose
- ANS regulates fundamental states of physiology, including heart rate, digestion,
respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, pupillary dilation, energy utilization, temperature
and sexual arousal.

• Sympathetic Nervous System – acts upon organ and glands resources for short-lived
behavior; predator avoidance and reproduction.
• Parasympathetic Nervous System – is responsible ‘rest and digest’ activities;
maintaining stable bodily functioning in normal situations, handling energy acquisition
and storage.
• Somatic Nervous System – is the part of the peripheral nervous system that handles
voluntary control of body movements. It contains all the neurons connected with skeletal
muscles and skin.
It is composed of sensory receptors in the skin, which, when activated, send sensory
information through dorsal root ganglion of the spine to synapses or inter-neurons which
in turn synapse on motor neurons that project out of ventral root ganglion to activate
muscle movements. Such as simple circuits mediate the patellar reflex and withdrawal
reflex.

Figure 12.Somatic Nervous System

• Skeletal Muscles are voluntary, and hence controlled by the SNS.

Figure 13.Skeletal Muscles

Synapse

- Synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical
signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell.

• At a chemical synapse each ending, or terminal, of a nerve fibre (presynaptic fibre) swells
to form a knoblike structure that is separated from the fibre of an adjacent neuron, called
a postsynaptic fibre, by a microscopic space called the synaptic cleft.
• The arrival of a nerve impulse at the presynaptic terminals causes the movement toward
the presynaptic membrane of membrane-bound sacs, or synaptic vesicles, which fuse
with the membrane and release a chemical substance called a neurotransmitter.
• This substance transmits the nerve impulse to the postsynaptic fibre by diffusing across
the synaptic cleft and binding to receptor molecules on the postsynaptic membrane.
• The chemical binding action alters the shape of the receptors, initiating a series of
reactions that open channel-shaped protein molecules. Electrically charged ions then flow
through the channels into or out of the neuron.

Function
- The function of the synapse is to transfer electric activity (information) from one cell to
another. The transfer can be from nerve to nerve (neuro-neuro), or nerve to muscle
(neuro-myo). The region between the pre and postsypnatic membrane is very narrow,
only 30-50 nm.

Figure 14.Synapse
Dendrites

- Dendrites are the receiving end of neurons.

- Dendrites are projections of a neuron (nerve cell) that receive signals (information) from other
neurons.
- Also called as dendrons, are branched protoplasmic extensions of a nerve cell that propagate
the electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body, or soma, of the
neuron from which the dendrites project.

Function
- Dendrites are the segments of the neuron that receive stimulation in order for the cell to become
active. They conduct electrical messages to the neuron cell body for the cell to function.

Figure 15.Dendrites

Soma
- is the bulbous body of a neuron (nerve cell) from which one or more processes emanate
(dendrites/ or axons) and which is the part of the neuron that contains the cell’s nucleus
enclosing a conspicuous nucleolus.
- the soma includes many organelles, composed predominantly of RER and free polyribosomes.

Function
- the cell body, also called the soma, is the spherical part of the neuron that contains the nucleus.
The cell body connects to the dendrites, which bring information to the neuron, and the axon,
which sends information to other neurons.

Figure 16.Soma (cell body)

 Axons
- An axon, or nerve fiber, is a long slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron that
conducts electrical impulses away from the neuron's cell body or soma.
- The axons or nerve fiber is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in
vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action potentials away from
the nerve cell body.

Function
- The function of the axon is to transmit information to different neurons, muscles, and glands.

Figure 17.Axon

Axon Terminals
- Axon terminals refer to the axon endings that are somewhat enlarged and often club- or
button-shaped. Axon terminals are that part of a nerve cell that make synaptic connections with
another nerve cell or with an effector cell (e.g. muscle cell or gland cell).
- Neurotransmitters are packaged into synaptic vesicles that cluster beneath the axon terminal
membrane on the presynaptic side of a synapse.
- The axonal terminals are specialized to release the neurotransmitters of the presynaptic cell.

Functions
- Axon terminals (or the end point of an axon/ just like a bus terminal) are not “connected” to
anything. They extend into the synapse area, which is the space between all neurons. They come
very close to the dendrite “catching” branches of other neurons (nerve cells) but do not
actually touch them.
- The function of the axon terminal is to transmit a neurotransmitter from one neuron to
another.

Figure 18.Axon Terminal