NERVOUS SYSTEM AND BRAIN

Question 1

Brain

Answer 1

Command centre of the CNS, responsible for the coordination of all the body’s conscious and unconscious activities.

Question 2

Spinal cord

Answer 2

• Acts like a bridge, relays messages back and forth to and from the brain
• Receive sensory information from the PNS and transmit it to the brain for processing.
• Receive motor messages from the brain and transmit them to the PNS (rest of the body)

Question 3

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Answer 3

• Network of nerves that branch out from the CNS and carry information to or from the rest of the body.
• Carry sensory information form the rest of the body to the CNS
• Carry motor information from the CNS to the rest of the body

Question 4

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) is made up of

Answer 4

• Somatic nervous system

- Autonomic Nervous system

Question 5

Somatic nervous system

Answer 5

Conveys messages from the sense organs to the CNS and controls the skeletal muscles responsible for voluntary movement.

Question 6

Autonomic Nervous System

Answer 6

Regulates automatic/involuntary operations of non-skeletal muscles concerned with internal bodily functioning.

Question 7

Autonomic Nervous System made up of

Answer 7

• Sympathetic nervous system

- Parasympathetic nervous system

Question 8

Sympathetic nervous system

Answer 8

• The emergency or arousal system
• Provides the extra energy we need for vigorous action, especially in times of stress or threat.
• Activates the fight / flight response
• Increase responsiveness of muscle and organs during activity, stress or when threatened

Question 9

Parasympathetic nervous system

Answer 9

• Returns the body to a state of calm once the cause of stress or threat is no longer present
• Responsible for maintaining homeostasis, autonomic day to day bodily functions (digestion, heart rate. breathing rate etc)

Question 10

Example of sympathetic vs parasympathetic changes

Answer 10

Sympathetic:
- Pupils dilate, hr increase, sweat glands increase the production

Parasympathetic:
- Pupils contract, hr decreases, sweat glands decrease the production

Question 11

Central nervous system

Answer 11

Receive, process and respond to information

• Brain
• Spinal cord

Question 12

Neuron

Answer 12

Is an individual nerve cell that receives, transmits and processes information so quickly that we are not aware of its activity

Question 13

Sensory neuron

Answer 13

Sends sensory information from our receptor sites (eg: skin, eyes, nose, tongue) towards the central nervous system to the brian

Question 14

Motor neuron

Answer 14

Sends information away from the central nervous system (brain) to the peripheral nervous system or to our muscles, organs and glands

Question 15

Interneuron

Answer 15

Sends information between sensory and motor neurons

Question 16

Dendrites

Answer 16

The dendrite is a short, thin, widely branching nerve fibre that is specialized to detect and receive neural information in a chemical form.

Question 17

Soma

Answer 17

The soma is the cell nucleus and determine whether the neuron will be activated and thus transmit (send) messages to other neurons

Question 18

Axon

Answer 18

An axon is a tube-like fluid-filled extension that transmits messages in the form of an electrical impulse, from the soma to other cells in the body including other neurons, muscles, organs and glands

Question 19

Myelin sheath

Answer 19

A white fatty substance that encases the axon that helps speed up transmission
→ acts as an electrical insulator
→ increase the rate at which this information travels

Question 20

Axon terminals

Answer 20

At the end of each axon are branches called axon terminals. They form a synapse with the next neuron. This is where neurotransmitters are released.

Question 21

Synapse

Answer 21

A synapse is a microscopic gap between neurons over which messages pass, message converts from electrical message to the chemical message

Question 22

Message travelled through a neuron…

Answer 22

information is received in the dendrite, that neural impulse travels to the soma, along the axon, to the axon terminals. The axon terminals or the buttons have sacs that release chemicals called neurotransmitters across the synapse and those neural transmitters will bind to receptor sites on the dendrites of the postsynaptic neuron.