NERVOUS SYSTEM

Central nervous system

The central nervous system (CNS) is made up of the brain and spinal
cord.
cerebral
hemisphere

cerebellum

brainstem

outer view
spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

• PNS is composed of all the

neurons that communicate
between the body and the
central nervous system
(brain & spinal cord)
• It consist of the motor and
sensory nerves
• It relays information about
environment to the brain
and relays information from
brain to body
STIMULUS
Humans respond to both internal and external stimuli.

An external stimulus is a change

in the environment around us.
For example, the heat of an
oven.

An internal stimulus is a
change inside the body. For
example, the feeling of
hunger.
External stimuli
Receptors and effectors
• Stimuli affect receptors in sense organs such as eyes
and ears

• Receptors are cells or organs that receives a stimulus

and converts it into an electrical impulse.
• The organs that respond to stimuli are effectors – the
muscles and the glands
• Here are some examples of action of effectors:
– a muscle contracting to move the arm
– a gland releasing a hormone into the blood
How the nervous system works
2. Processing in
brain
1. Detection
of stimulus
Sensory neurons

3. Response in
other part of
body Motor neurons

Fig. 48.1
How are responses coordinated?
If a stimulus is detected your nervous system sends an
impulse along neurones to and from different parts of
the body, to coordinate a response.

1. Specific receptors in a sense organ detect a

stimulus.

2. An electrical impulse is sent to the brain.

3. The brain processes the information.

4. An electrical impulse is sent to an effector

(e.g. a muscle or gland).

5. The effector produces a response.

Stimulus to response
Nervous system
The nervous system can coordinate a response to a
stimulus, using nerve cells.
Nerve cells, or neurones are specialized cells that
transmit nerve impulses around the body.

cell body

nucleus Nerve impulses are electrical

signal that passes along a nerve
cell in one direction
General structure of a neurone
Neurone

Neurones are elongated cells consisting of a cell body and

long, thin axon.
dendrites
myelin
sheath
cell
body
axon
End plate
Thin projections called dendrites extend from the cell body and
connect with other neurones, allowing electrical impulses to pass
from one to the other.
The axons of most neurones are wrapped in an insulating lipid
layer called the myelin sheath. Why is this important?
Direction of nerve impulse conduction

Dendrites

Cell body

Axon

End plate
Sensory, relay and motor neurones
Types of neurone
There are several different types of neurone:
sensory
neurones: receptor
CNS
organs

relay
neurones:
motor
sensory
neurones
neurones

motor
neurones:
effectors
CNS
What are sensory neurones?
Sensory neurones transmit messages from sense receptors,
such as the eye or nose, to the brain or spinal cord.

cell body

nerve impulse from nerve impulse to

sense organ CNS
What are motor neurones?
Motor neurones transmit messages from the brain and
spinal cord to the effectors (muscles and glands).

cell body

muscle
Nerve

A nerve is a bundle of many nerve fibres

enclosed within a protective sheath. Nerve
fibres are the long axons of neurones
together with any associated tissues.

nerve

nerve fibre
Common reflexes
What types of reflexes do you know?
What are reflexes?
Reflexes are fast, automatic, protective biological
control systems that link a stimulus to a response.
A stimulus is a change in the internal or external
environment of an organism.
Reflex reactions happen without you having to
think about them – they are involuntary.
This is because the central nervous system
(CNS) sends electrical signals to the muscles
before the brain can pick up and process the
message.
Many reflexes, such as sneezing and focusing your
eyes, occur naturally, but other reflexes can be
learned, i.e. conditioned responses.
Reflexes and animals
Reflex reactions govern much of how the simplest animals
behave and help to ensure their survival.
Reflex actions in simple animals
help them to:
 shelter from predators
 find food.

Humans also demonstrate simple

reflexes. These include newborn
reflexes, such as grasping or sucking,
pupil reflexes and knee-jerk
reflexes.
Knee-Jerk
Examples of reflexes
• Withdrawal (nociceptive) reflex
• Knee-jerk (patellar) reflex
• Gag (pharyngeal) reflex
• Blink (corneal) reflex
• Pupillary reflex

http://medicalimages.allrefer.com/large/moro-reflex.jpg https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTT-1Ol3RyXhrbfL1Ijw7e61q7G-NfX__N4ICwOQQQ0QI01CuJ8
Why are reflexes so fast?
Reflexes need to be fast in order to protect the body. If you pick up
a hot plate, the reflex action will make you drop it almost
immediately. This is to protect your hand from burning.

The quicker you drop

the plate, the less
damage will be
done to your hand.

However, we can consciously override reflexes. If the hot plate

had your dinner on it, you might try to resist the reflex to drop it
so that you could put it down safely.

Reflexes happen so quickly because they often only involve three

neurones – sensory, relay and motor neurones.
A reflex arc is the nerve pathway in the reflex action
A reflex arc is the nerve pathway in the reflex action

In reflex action, processing of the stimulus doesn’t happen in the brain:

Processing occurs in the spinal cord
The electrical impulse is sent faster so the body responds automatically
without “thinking”
Reflex action is a means of automatically and rapidly integrating and
coordinating stimuli with the responses of effectors (muscles and glands)
Synapse

A synapse is a junction between two neurones across which

electrical signals pass. The human body contains up to 500
trillion synapses.

presynaptic
cell

postsynaptic
cell
What is a synapse?
The release of neurotransmitters

When a nerve impulse arrives at the end of one neurone it

triggers the release of neurotransmitter molecules from
synaptic vesicles.

synaptic
vesicle

neurotransmitter
molecules
Continuing the impulse
The neurotransmitters diffuse across the synaptic cleft and bind
with receptors on the next neurone, triggering another impulse.
In a reflex arc the synapses ensure that impulses travel in one
direction only

synaptic
cleft

nerve
impulse
receptor
Synapse

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mItV4rC57kM/maxresdefault.jpg
Drugs and Synapse
• Many drugs produce their effects by interacting with
receptor molecules at synapses.
• Heroin, for example, stimulates receptor molecules in
synapses in the brain, triggering the release of dopamine (a
neurotransmitter), which gives a short-lived ‘high’.
• Spider toxin, and also the toxin released by tetanus (an
infection caused by Clostridium bacteria), breaks down
vesicles, releasing massive amounts of transmitter
substance and disrupting normal synaptic function.
• Symptoms caused by the tetanus toxin include muscle
spasms, lock-jaw and heart failure.
Heroine and Synapse
• heroin is converted into
morphine and diffuses into
synapse
• heroin is complementary to
receptors for endorphin
neurotransmitter so binds to it.
• This blocks neurotransmitter
entering receptor site leading
to reduced pain perception
• morphine stimulates release of
dopamine

http://is.gd/Jellinek
SENSE ORGANS
• Sense organs are groups of receptor cells
responding to specific stimuli: light, sound, touch,
temperature and chemicals
• The nervous system sorts out information from the
senses and sends messages to those muscles/glands
which make the appropriate response
Sensory Receptors

Watch TED Ed-The science of spiciness

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-science-of-spiciness-rose-eveleth
Anatomy of the Human Eye
Inside the eye
cornea
protects eye surface and
refracts light rays
suspensory ligaments retina
hold lens in place contains light
receptors
lens
focuses light
onto the retina

iris
Controls the amount
of light entering pupil
optic nerve
ciliary muscles transmits impulses to
change shape of the lens the brain
Regulating Amount of Light
• The iris contain two types of muscles
(circular and radial muscles) that alter
the size of the pupil.
• The circular and radial muscles act
antagonistically.
– This means that they oppose each
other in their actions – when the
circular muscles contract they
constrict the pupil and when the
radial muscles contract the pupil
dilates.
• The change in size of the pupil is
caused by an automatic reflex action;
you cannot control it consciously.
• This is called the pupil reflex
The pupil reflex
If the light intensity is high, it causes a
contraction in a ring of muscle fibres
(circular muscle) in the iris.
This reduces the size of the pupil and
cuts down the intensity of light entering
the eye. High-intensity light can damage
the retina, so this reaction has a
contracted pupil protective function.

In low light intensities, radial

muscles of the iris contract. This
makes the pupil enlarge and
allows more light to enter and
reach the retina.
dilated pupil
Focusing Light Rays

• Light rays from distant objects enter the eye

parallel to one another
• Light rays from close objects diverge.
Accommodation
Accommodation is changing the shape of the eye lens to
keep objects in focus
Accommodation
ACCOMODATION

Accommodation is changing the shape of the eye lens to

keep objects in focus

Nearby Objects Distant Objects

1. Ciliary muscle
contracts 1. Ciliary muscle
2. Suspensory relaxes
ligament 2. Suspensory
slackens ligament
3. lens allowed to becomes taut
thicken 3. lens allowed to
4. Light is thin
refracted more 4. Light is
refracted less
 Retina

Retina Optic nerve

To
brain
• The retina is located at the
back of the eye
• It consist of 2 types of light- Retina
Photoreceptors

sensitive cells: rods and Neurons

Cone Rod

cones
• Rods: sensitive to light
• Cones: color vision
• The retina converts light
signal into an electrical signal
that is transmitted to the
brain through the optic
nerve to the brain Amacrine
cell Horizontal
cell
Optic
nerve Ganglion Bipolar Pigmented
fibers cell cell epithelium
Rods and Cones
• Rods and cones differ in distribution and
light sensitivity
• rod cells: detects low light
– They are abundant around the periphery
(edge) of the retina
– Functions in less intense light
– Responsible for night vision
– Detects black, white and shades of grey
• cone cells: detects colour
– Highest concentration at fovea
– Functions best in bright light
– Perceives fine details
– 3 types of cone cells, each sensitive to one of
the three primary additive colours:
• red, green, and blue
fovea
FOVEA
• The fovea has no
rods Sclera Choroid
• It has high Retina
concentration of Ciliary body
cone cells
• Recall: cones are Suspensory Fovea (center
associated with ligament of visual field)
colour vision and
Cornea
perception of fine
Iris Optic
detail nerve
• No blood vessels to Pupil
interfere with
vision Aqueous
humor
• Provides sharp
detailed vision (e.g. Lens
needed during Central artery and
reading, driving Vitreous humor vein of the retina
etc.) Optic disk
(blind spot)
Activity: The reappearing dot

• Draw an X on a piece of paper. Then draw a dot 6

cm to the right of the X.
• Cover your left eye with your left hand.
• Hold the paper with your right hand at arms length
away.
• Focus your right eye on the X but keep the dot in
your peripheral vision.
• Slowly move the paper towards your face and
notice when the dot “disappears” and “reappears”.
Identifying the blindspot
Video: Human Hearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGqfRvCkt-w&feature=player_embedded
How do cochlear implants work?
Watch the video to see how it works:
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted
device that helps to correct hearing loss
associated with damaged cochlea hairs.
Its function is to generate electrical signals
from sound vibrations and transmit them to
your auditory nerve

https://youtu.be/zeg4qTnYOpw

http://kidshealth.org/EN/images/illustrations/cochlearImpant_420x315_rd1_enIL.jpg