Nervous System

Biology
Study Guides

Big Picture
The nervous system controls mental and physical activities, whether they are voluntary or involuntary. The nervous
system sends electrical signals around the body, allowing the body to react to its surroundings quickly. Without the
nervous system, we would not be able to function normally. The ability of the nervous system to monitor and respond
to the surrounding depends on the transmission of signals from one neuron to the next and within the neuron itself.

Key Terms
Homeostasis: The maintenance by an organism of a constant internal environment (for example, blood glucose
level, pH, body temperature)
Nervous System: The organ system that carries electrical messages throughout the body.
Central Nervous System (CNS): Includes the brain and spinal cord.
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Nerves that connect all parts of the body to the brain.
Nerve: A cable-like bundles of axons that make up the peripheral nervous system.
Neuron: The structural and functional units of the nervous system. Consists of three parts:

Cell Body: Contains the nucleus and other cell organelles.

Dendrite: Extends from the cell body and receives nerve impulses from other neurons.
Axon: An extension of the cell body that transmits nerve impulses to other cells.
Myelin Sheath: Outer layer of the axon that serves as an insulator for the axon. There are gaps on the myelin
sheath that allow the electrical signal to move along the axon quickly.
Nerve Impulse: Electrical signal transmitted by a neuron.
Synapse: Where an axon terminal meets another neuron cell.
Neurotransmitter: Chemical that transmits signals across synapses from the axon terminal of one neuron to the
dentrites of the next neuron.

Parts of the Nervous System

The nervous system is divided into two parts:

1. Central nervous system (CNS): The brain and

spinal cord.
• The spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of
the body, moving from the brain stem down the
back to the pelvis.
2. Peripheral nervous system (PNS): All the neurons
and sensory organs in the body not included in the
central nervous system.
• The PNS is connected to the CNS by nerves. This
nervous system is divided into the sensory (sends
information to the central nervous system) and
motor (sends information to muscle and glands)
systems.
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Biology Nervous System cont .
Nerve Cells Steps of a reflex arc
Nervous tissues consist of neurons. Neurons • Signal is received
transmit electrical signals called nerve • Sensory neuron is activated
impulses.
• Interneuron passes the info to a motor neuron
Parts of a neuron • Motor neuron is activated and causes a reaction
• The signal never goes through the brain–it’s just
• Dendrites receive nerve impulses and pass directly executed; that’s what makes reflexes so fast
them along the axon.
• The axon serves as a roadway, allowing
neurons to travel along it before it branches
off at the end, called the axon terminal.
• Axons are covered in a myelin sheath, which
increases the speed of impulse transmission.
• The myelin sheath acts as an insulator, much
like the plastic around an electrical cord. Gaps
in the myelin (called nodes of Ranvier) allow
impulses to travel along the axon quickly.
• Schwann cells are a type of glial cells that
supply myelin to the axons
• The axon terminal is where the
neurons communicate with the cells. It passes
impulses onto the next nerve cell.
Communication Between Neurons
Neurons communicate with each other at synapses (the
connection gap between neurons). Nerve impulses cannot
jump across the synapse so tiny chemicals called neuro
transmitters pass along the message along the synapse to
the next neuron:
• Chemical signaling molecules are used as messengers
• Once a signal reaches the axon terminal,
a neurotransmitter is released across the synapse.
• The neurotransmitter binds to receptors on the
dendrites of the next neuron and passes on the
signal.
• This triggers the receiving neuron to convert the message
Types of neurons:
into a nervous impulse and conduct along its axon.
• Sensory neurons: Carry impulses from • This continues from neuron to neuron until the message
sensory organs to the brain. Found in the PNS. reaches a motor neuron, which then communicates to an
effector, such as a muscle or gland.
• Motor neurons: Carry impulses from the
brain to certain muscles and glands, and
signals for them to carry out actions. Found in
the PNS.
• Interneurons: Carry impulses between sen-
sory and motor neurons. Found in the CNS.

Stimulus-response model:

To able to achieve homeostasis, the stimulus-

response model is a system in which a change
(stimulus) is detected by receptors leading to a
response to bring about some type of change or
correction so the conditions can be brought back
to normal.

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 Nervous system CONT.
Feedback Loop
Simulus-Response models can also involve
negative or positive feedback. Most biological
feedback systems involve negative feedback.
Negative feedback occurs when the response is
in the opposite direction to the stimulus. It is a
mechanism of homeostasis that allows for the
body to return a body variable back to normal or
within a set range, such as control of body
temperature (thermoregulation)
Figure: Example of Negative Feedback
Biology
Study Guides
Endocrine system
Like the nervous system the endocrine system is
responsible for coordinating and controlling processes in
your body.
Unlike the nervous system, which uses the nerves to send
messages around the body, the endocrine system uses
chemical messengers called hormones to communicate
with other cells and organs.
The hormones are produced by the endocrine glands and
are released directly into the bloodstream. They have a
slow and long duration to reduce the amount of hormones
that needs to be produced, and affect the whole body
rather than a specific area.
Receptors
Sense organs are used to detect stimuli (such as light, sound,
touch, taste and smell) in your environment. Examples of
human sense organs are your eyes, ears, skin, tongue and
nose. These sense organs contain special cells called
receptors. These receptors are named according to the type
of stimuli that they respond to:
• Thermoreceptors enable you to detect
variations in temperature and are located in
your skin.
• Mechanoreceptors are sensitive to touch,
and motion (pressure) and are located in your
skin, and ear.
• Chemoreceptors are sensitive to particular
chemicals and are located in your nose and
tastebuds.
• Photoreceptors are sensitive to light and are
located only in your eyes.
• Pain receptors detect pain which is important
because it generally indicates danger or injury.
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Biology DISEASES
Big Picture
Diseases are any change that impairs the function of an individual in some way, causing harm to the individual.
Disease can be infectious and non-infectious. Infectious diseases are transmitted through the spread of pathogens
such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. The human body as defenses against infection through physical and
chemical barriers, phagocytes and specific immunity.

Key Terms
Infectious disease: A disease that is contagious (can be spread from on organism to another) and caused by a
pathogen.
Non-infectious disease: A disease that cannot be spread from on organism to another.
Cellular pathogen: A pathogen that is made up of cells, such as a tapeworm, fungus or bacterium.
Non-cellular pathogen: A pathogen that is not made up of cells, such as a virus, prion or viroid.
Host: The organism that a parasite lives in or on.
Immunity: Resistance to a particular disease-causing pathogen.
Pathogen: A disease-producing organism.
Parasite: Organism that obtains resources from another organism (host) that it lives in (endoparasites) or on
(ectoparasites), and causes harm to.
Virus: A very simple microorganism that infects cells and may cause disease.
Vectors: Organisms that carry a pathogen between other organisms without being affected by the disease
caused by the pathogen.
Phagocytes: White blood cells that ingests and destroys foreign particles, bacteria and other pathogens.
Vaccination: Administering a vaccine to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop immunity to a
disease

Transmission of diseases
Pathogens may be transmitted or contracted by:

• direct contact - such as physical contact

or exchanging of fluids. Examples include:
o touching
o kissing
o sexual contact
o contact with oral secretion or saliva
o contact with sores or body lesions of
an infected person.

• vectors - diseases spread by another

organism.

• contaminated objects or water supply.

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 DISEASES CONT.
Cause of diseases
Infectious pathogens can disrupt the normal
functioning of the body and cause disease. There
are many types of pathogens, including
bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites.
Figure: Example of cellular and non-cellular pathogens.
Figure: examples of viruses (top left), bacteria (top right)
and fungi (bottom)
Biology
Study Guides
Lines of defence
The role of your immune system is to protect you against
foreign invaders. You immune system has three lines of
defence against pathogens, each with a different role.
The first line of defence is to stop pathogens from getting
inside of your body through physical and chemical barriers
Figure: The skin and mucous membranes are the first line
of defence against pathogens.
If a pathogen gets inside your body, into the bloodstream,
the body tries to remove it through the second line of
defence. The second line of defence is called a general or
non-specific immune response. White blood cells
(phagocytes) are produced to destroy the pathogen by
surrounding and absorbing the pathogen, in a process called
phagocytosis. This produces the symptoms of inflammation
and fever.
Any pathogen that survives the non-specific secondary
response are targeted according to their type. This is call
specific immune response, the third line of defence.
This response involves special proteins called antibodies,
that each target unique markers called antigens on the
pathogen.
The strength of the third line of defence is that it develops
memory cells, if you are infected by the same pathogen
again, the third line of defence will response faster and
stronger than it did the first time - meaning you have
become immune to the disease.
Vaccination aid the specific immune system by introducing
antibodies into the body to help the body build immunity to
an infectious disease, in the same way as if it were infected!
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