Division of the Nervous System and Neural Pathways Flashcards
What is the CNS made up of?
The brain and spinal cord
What does the PNS consist of?
The somatic and autonomic nervous system
What does the somatic nervous system do?
Takes messages from the sense organs, along sensory neurones to the CNS while motor neurones takes impulses from CNS along motor neurones to muscles and glands
What does the autonomic nervous system contain?
The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems
Which are antagonistic to each other
What does the sympathetic system do?
It prepares the body for action (fight or flight) by increasing heart rate, increasing breathing rate by allowing bronchioles to take in more air and decreasing peristalsis and production of intestinal secretions
What does the parasympathetic system do?
It calms the body down by returning it to normal (rest and digest) by decreasing heart rate, decreasing breathing rate by constricting bronchioles so less oxygen is taken in and increasing rate of peristalsis and production intestinal secretions allowing the body to conserve resources and store energy
What is the structure and function of the converging neural pathway?
Impulses from several sources are channelled towards and meet at a common destination
This increases the sensitivity to excitatory or inhibitory glands
What is the structure and function of the diverging neural pathway?
The route along which an impulse travels divides allowing information to be transmitted to several destinations at once
What is the structure and function of the reverberating neural pathways?
Neurones later in the pathway form synapses with neurones earlier in the pathway forming a loop enabling impulses to be cycled and stimulated repeatedly
