Human Nervous System

By Ilhan Charyyarov
Nervous System In
General
• In biology, the classical doctrine of
the nervous system determines that it
is a highly complex part of an animal
which coordinates
its actions and sensory information by
transmitting signals to and from
different parts of its body.
• The nervous system detects
environmental changes that impact the
body, then works in tandem with
the endocrine system to respond to such
events.
Nerve Cell Biology
Nerve Cell Physiology
• Nerve impulse (think of it as a wave)
travels down the axon because ions
(sodium and potassium) temporarily travel
across the plasma membrane
• Nerve impulse at a synapse releases a
neurotransmitter from synaptic vesicles
• Neurotransmitter crosses the synapse
and binds to specific receptors to start
another nerve impulse on the other nerve
cell
• Neurotransmitter that travelled across
the synapse is destroyed or reabsorbed
by the nerve cell
• Large number of drugs and biochemicals
interact with this physiological mechanism
Classification of Nerve
Cells
Nervous System Anatomy
• Nervous system can be divided
into two major components—
central and peripheral nervous
system
• Central nervous system is
comprised of the brain and spinal
cord
• Peripheral nervous system is
comprised of nerves that come off
the brain (cranial) or spinal cord
(cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and
sacrolumbar)
Simple Anatomy of the Human Brain
Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system and
the endocrine (hormone) system
control the body’s internal organs.
It innervates smooth muscle,
cardiac muscle, and glands,
controlling the circulation of blood,
the activity of the gastrointestinal
tract, body temperature, and a
number of other body functions.
Most of this control is not
conscious.
Autonomic Nervous System (cont.)
The autonomic nervous system is divided
into two parts, the sympathetic and
parasympathetic nervous systems,
whose actions are mostly antagonistic.
Many organs are supplied by nerves
from each division, but some are not.
The sympathetic nervous system is
activated in times of crisis (fight or
flight) while the parasympathetic
nervous system operates in ordinary
times.
Autonomic Nervous System (cont.)
• Autonomic nervous system also
stimulates the secretions of the
adrenal gland
• The principle secretion of the
adrenal gland is epinephrine
(adrenalin)
• Epinephrine further effects other
parts of organ systems in the
autonomic nervous system
response (fight or flight)
Parasympathetic
Sympathetic
Somatic Nervous System
• The somatic nervous system is the part
of the peripheral nervous
system associated with the voluntary
control of body movements via skeletal
muscles.
• The somatic nervous system consists
of sensory nerves carrying afferent
nerve fibers that relay sensation from
the body to CNS. The other nerves in
the SNS are motor
nerves carrying efferent nerve
fibers that relay motor commands from
the CNS to stimulate muscle
contraction.
Somatic Nervous System
• There are 43 segments of nerves in the
human body. With each segment, there
is a pair of sensory and motor nerves. In
the body, 31 segments of nerves are in
the spinal cord and 12 are in the brain
stem. Besides these, thousands of
association nerves are also present in
the body.
Somatic Nervous System
• Thus the somatic nervous system
consists of two parts:
• Spinal nerves: They are mixed nerves
that carry sensory information into and
motor commands out of the spinal cord.
• Cranial nerves: They are the nerve
fibers that carry information into and
out of the brain stem. They include
smell, vision, eye, eye muscles, mouth,
taste, ear, neck, shoulders, and tongue.
Somatic Nervous System