Animal responses Flashcards
Define central nervous system
Consists of your brain and spinal cord
Define peripheral nervous system
- This consists of all the neurones that connect the CNS to the rest of the body.
- These are sensory neurones which carry nerve impulses from the receptors to the CNS, and the motor neurones which carry nerve impulses away from the CNS to the effectors
Define somatic nervous system
- This system is under conscious control- used when you voluntarily decide to do something
- E.g. when you decide to move a muscle to move your arm
- It carries impulses to the body’s muscles
Define autonomic nervous system
- This works constantly
- It is under subconscious control and is used when the body does something automatically without you deciding to do it- it is involuntary
- E.g to cause the heart to beat or to digest food
- The autonomic nervous system carries nerve impulses to glands, smooth muscle and cardiac muscle
Define sympathetic nervous system
- Division of the autonomic nervous system
- Initiates flight or fight responses
- Neurotransmitter - noradrenaline
Define parasympathetic nervous sytem
- Division of the autonomic nervous system
- Relaxing responses
- Neurotransmitter- acetylcholine
State 4 differences between the autonomic nervous system and the somatic nervous system.
- Somatic is voluntary and autonomic is involuntary
- Somatic most neurones are myelinated, autonomic most are unmyelinated or lightly myelinated
- Somatic carry impulses to skeletal but autonomic cary it to cardiac, smooth muscle and glands
- Somatic- 1 neurones to connect CNS to effector but autonomic- at least 2 neurones to connect CNS to effector
Define the term “antagonistic system” in relation to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and outline how they co-ordinate responses.
- The sympathetic and parasympathetic have antagonistic effects on the organs
- The action of ones system opposes the action of the other.
- Under normal conditions impulses are passing along the neurones of both systems at a relatively low rate
- Changes to conditions lead to an altered balance between the two systems which leads to an appropriate response
Draw a table to compare the structure and function of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
- PNS is most active in sleep and relaxation, SNS is most active in times of stress
- SNS- neurones of a pathway are linked at a ganglion just outside the spinal cord (long post-ganglionic neurones, short pre-ganglionic neurones). PNS- neurones of a pathway are linked at a ganglion within the target tissue (long pre-ganglionic neurones and short post-ganglionic neurones)
- SNS- neurotransmitter is noradrenaline, PNS- uses acetylcholine
Label a diagram of the human brain showing the location of the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, hypothalamus and pituitary gland
p362 look and practice labelling
- Main top bit is the cerebrum
- Skull surrounds it all
- Located just underneath the cerebrum is the corpus callosum which is worm shaped ish
- Pituitary gland comes of the hypothalamus
- Hypothalamus comes from the medulla oblongata
- Cerebellum is a leaf shaped part under cerebrum
- Spinal cord comes from comes down from the cerebellum
Describe the structure of the cerebrum.
- It is highly convoluted which increases its surface area considerably and therefore it capacity for complex activity
- It is split into right and left hemispheres which control one half of the body.
- The outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres is known as the cerebral cortex
- Six areas- frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, temporal lobe
Describe the role of sensory areas, association areas and motor areas of the cerebral cortex.
- Each sensory area within the cerebral hemispheres receives information from receptor cells located in sense organs
- The size of the sensory area allocated is in proportion to the relative number of receptor cells present in the body part.
- The information is then passed on to other areas of the brain known as association areas, to be analysed and acted upon.
- Impulses come into the motor areas where motor neurones send out impulses, e.g to move skeletal muscles
- The size of the motor area allocated is in proportion to the relative number of motor endings in it.
- The main region which controls movement is the primary motor cortex located at the back of the frontal lobe
Describe the role of the cerebellum in coordinated muscular movement.
- This area of the brain is concerned with the control of muscular movement, body posture and balance- it does not initiate movement but coordinates it.
- If this area of the brain is damaged, a person suffers from jerky, uncoordinated movement.
- The cerebellum receives information from the organs of balance in the ears and information about the tone of muscles and tendons.
- It then relays this information to the areas of the cerebral cortex that are involved in motor control
Describe which side of the brain controls which side of the body
- In the base of the brain, impulses from each side of the body cross
- Therefore the left hemisphere receives impulses from the right-hand side of the body and the right hemisphere receives impulses from the left-hand side of the body
Describe the structure and location of the pituitary gland.
- This is found at the base of the hypothalamus and controls most of the glands in the body.
- It is divided into two sections.
- Anterior pituitary- produces 6 hormones including follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which is involved in reproduction and growth hormones
- Posterior pituitary (back section)- stores and releases hormones produced by the hypothalamus, such as ADH involved in urine production
Describe the structure and location of the hypothalamus
- This is the main controlling region for the autonomic nervous system.
- It has two centres- one of the parasympathetic and one for the sympathetic nervous system.
- It has a number of functions:
- Controlling complex patterns of behaviour such as feeding, sleeping and aggression
- Monitoring the composition of blood plasma, such as the concentration of water and blood glucose- therefore it has a very rich blood supply
- Producing hormones- it is an endocrine gland, that is, it produces hormones
Describe the structure and location of the medulla oblongata
- It contains many important regulatory centres of the autonomic nervous system
- These control relex activities such as ventilation (breathing rate) and heart rate.
- It also controls activities such as swallowing, peristalsis and coughing
Define the term reflex action
Involuntary response to a sensory stimulus
Define the term reflex arc
The pathway of neurones involved in a reflex action is known as a reflex arc
Define stimulus
A detectable change in the internal or external environment
Define receptor
Extrinsic glycoproteins that bind to chemical signals triggering a response by the cell
Define effector
Muscle or gland which carries out bodies response to a stimulus
Define response
The way a body reacts to a stimulus