Biopsychology - The Nervous System Flashcards
What are the 2 subsystems that the nervous system is divided up into?
The Nervous System
- The Central Nervous System
- The Peripheral Nervous System
What is the CNS made up of and what are it’s functions?
The Nervous System
Made up of: Brain and Spinal cord
Functions: Control behaviour and regulate the body’s physiological processes
How does the CNS carry out it’s functions?
The Nervous System
The brain has to recieve information from the sensory receptors and be able to send messages to the muscles and glands of the body.
Information and the 4 main areas.
What is the brain?
The Nervous System
- It is the centre of all concious awareness
- It’s outer layer named the cerebal cortex is highly developed in humans (distinguishes our mental functions)
- 4 main areas: cerebal cortex, cerebellum, diencephalon and the brain stem
- It is divided into 2 hemispheres, the left and right - they communicate with eachother along a bridge named the corpus callosum
Function and information
What is the spinal cord?
The Nervous System
- It’s an extension of the brain and is a long bundle of nerve cells that carry messages to and from the brain to the body
- Connected to different parts of the body by pairs of spinal nerves which connect with muscles and glands
- Main function: life saving, fast reflexes
- It is a circuit of nerve cells that enable us to perform reflexes without the brain
- If spinal cord is damaged, areas supplied by spinal nerves below damaged site will cut off from the brain and stop functioning
What is the PNS made up of and what are it’s functions?
The Nervous System
- It refers to any nerves and nerve cells that are not apart of the brain or spinal cord - they emerge from the spinal cord and run through the body theirselves
- They send info via millions of neurons to the CNS from the environment and relay messages from the CNS to glands, muscles and organs
What are the 2 divisions of the PNS?
The Nervous System
- The Somatic Nervous System
- The autonomic Nervous System
What are the SNS 2 main functions and information?
The Nervous System
- Recieveing information from our sensory receptors and passing it to the CNS
- Controlloing voluntary muscle movement
- It is made up of cranial nerves (emerge from directly under the brain) and spinal nerves (emerge from spinal cord) - both nerves have sensory and motor neurons
What are sensory and motor neurons?
The Nervous System
- Sensory neurons - relay and send messages to the CNS from our sense organs
- Motor neurons - relay info from the CNS to other areas of the body: muscles, glands and organs
What are the ANS functions and what is it split into?
The Nervous System
- Responsible for involuntary movements: breathing, heart rate, digestion
- It communicates info to the CNS from our organs AND info to our organs from the CNS
- It is split into 2 branches: The sympathetic branch and The parasympathetic branch
Subdivision of the ANS
What is the Sympathetic Nervous System’s functions?
The Nervous System
- Involved in responses that help us deal with emergencies
- It is the Fight or Flight response
- It prepares the body for rapid action: heart rate increases as well as respiration and pupils dilating
- It slows down bodily processes such as digestion that are less important in emergencies
Subdivison of the ANS
What is the Parasympathetic nervous system’s function?
The Nervous System
- Restores the body back to normal functioning after the emergency has passed
- Slows heart rate and blood pressure down, digestion also begins again
- It is known as rest and digest
