Coordination & Response

The Nervous System

 Coordination– The Nervous System
Objectives
• How and why do organisms respond to changes in their environment?
• Can you list what is required for a coordinated response?
• What makes up the CNS?
• Can you explain that receptors are used to generate impulses in
neurones, resulting in a rapid response?
• What is a reflex arc and why it is important for your body?
• What are synapses and how do messages pass from synapses?

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Responding to Change

• In order for living organisms to find food, avoid danger,

find a mate they need to be able to respond to changes
in their environment.
• These changes are called STIMULI.

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Sense Organs and Receptors
• Receptor cells are special cells adapted to detect
stimuli.
• They are found in our sense organs.

Movement of
Light sound waves

Pressure/heat
Chemical

Chemical

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Impulses

• Information from these receptors passes as nerve

impulses along nerve cells (neurones) to the brain.
• The brain then coordinates the response.
• Some responses are voluntary, some are automatic.
• Some responses bypass the brain altogether, these
are called reflex actions.

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
The Structure of the Nervous System

• There are two parts:

• The Central Nervous System
(CNS) which consists of the brain
and spinal cord.
• The Peripheral Nervous System
which is all the nerves that take
information from our sense
organs into the CNS and from
the CNS out to effectors
(muscles or glands).
• What is difference b/w neuron
and nerve.
"1201 Overview of Nervous System" by OpenStax College - Anatomy & Physiology, Connexions Web site. http://cnx.org/content/col11496/1.6/,
Jun 19, 2013.. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons -
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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Neurones

• Neurones transmit impulses around the body.

• Impulses travel at speeds of between 10 and 100 m/s
• Sensory neurones carry impulses from the receptor
to the brain/CNS
• Motor neurones carry impulses from the brain/ CNS
to the effector.
• Relay neurons, which constitute our CNS

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Sensory Neurones

• Stimuli are picked up by sensory receptors and passed

into the neurone.

Direction of impulse

• This generates an impulse which travels along the

neurone.
• This is then passed to the spinal cord or the
brain to interpret the initial stimuli.

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Sensory Neurones

• The neurone is surrounded by fatty covering called

myelin sheath.
• This insulates the neurone.

Myelin sheath

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Sensory Neurones

• The dendron carries the impulse up to the cell body, it

then becomes the axon.

Cell body

Dendron Axon
• The cell body contains the nucleus and all the other
components that a cell needs to function.

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Sensory Neurones

Direction of impulse

Cell body

Dendron
Junction with
Myelin sheath Axon Junction
sensory receptor
with CNS

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Motor Neurones
• A nerve impulse is sent out from the brain down the
dendrites.
• The impulse then travels down the axon.

Dendron
Dendrites

Axon

Cell body Myelin sheath

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Motor Neurones

• The impulse arrives at a muscle or gland (effector)

causing it to contract.

Direction of impulse
Dendron
Dendrites

Axon

Muscle
Cell body Myelin sheath

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Reflex Action

• A reflex action is a rapid, automatic/involuntary

response to a stimulus.
• No consciousness involved.
• Each reflex action is a fixed response to a particular
stimulus.
• The action often protects the body.
• The nerve pathway of a reflex is called the reflex arc.
For example

pupil constricting in Touching something very hot

bright

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Reflex Arc
Spinal cord

Sensory neurone

Relay neurone

Motor neurone

The signal does not go up to the

brain, but is processed in the
spinal cord via a relay neurone.

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 The reflex action is fast because:
1. The pin stimulates pain
• Impulses travel v. quickly
receptors in the skin
• The reflex arc by-passes the
brain so it is involuntary and
2. An impulse is generated in a unstoppable
sensory neurone • There are only 3 neurones
3. The impulse is passed to a
involved – the neural pathway
relay neurone within the spinal
is short
cord via a synapse

5. The motor neurone 4. The impulse is

carries the impulse passed to a motor
directly to the biceps neurone via another
muscle, which is the synapse
effector in this
example.

6. The muscle contracts, causing the arm to raise, lifting the

hand away from the dangerous pin – this is the response.
 Coordination– The Nervous System
Reflex Arc

Stimulus The candle

Receptor Temperature receptor in finger

Sensory neurone Sensory neurone

Coordinator Relay neurone in spinal cord

Motor neurone Motor neurone

Effector Muscle in arm

Response Arm moves away from candle

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 Coordination– The Nervous System
Coordinated Response

• A reflex is an example of an automatic coordinated

response.
• In a voluntary response the brain would be the
coordinator not the spinal cord.

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 Synapses
A synapse is the junction
between two neurones.
An electrical impulse arrives
at the end of a neurone,
causing a chemical
neurotransmitter to be
released that diffuses across
a gap and initiates an
impulse in the next neurone.
 Synapses

The junction between two

neurones.
An electrical impulse arrives at
the end of a neurone, causing a
chemical neurotransmitter to
be released that diffuses across
a gap and initiates an impulse in
the next neurone.
 Thank you.
QUESTIONS PLEASE!