The Nervous System Broken Down

Are you ready to understand the centre of our being; what makes us function; the centre of our movement and being!?

Well here it is!

A neuron is a highly specialised cell that transmits signals to other neurons, muscles and glands.

We have three types of neurons.

Neuron Types

-  Bipolar:  Interneurons
-  Unipolar:  Sensory neurons
-  Multipolar:  Motor neurons

Sensory neurons:  These are receptors that transmit neurons to the central nervous system (CNS).
Motor neurons:  These send out going signals.
Inter neurons:  These receive signals from sensory neurons and send messages to other inter neurons and motor neurons.

Got that?

Well it's about to get a little more confusing...

I'm sure you have heard of our central nervous system...

Well this system regulates our body functions and is the command post of our body.  It senses, processes, and stores information and in effect chemistry of the brain changes when learning something new.

We also have a spinal cord and this occupies the vertebral canal.  The spinal cord contains neural circuits which control different reflexive functions.

The brainstem is located at the top of the spinal column and travels up into the cranial cavity.

We have three parts, these are the medulla, pons and midbrain.  These contain a number of neural centres critical to behaviour and mood.  It controls functions necessary for sustaining life such as our blood pressure (BP) and respiration.

I hope you are keeping up...

We also have a peripheral nervous system (PNS)...

These nervous system extends from the spinal cord carrying messages to and from various muscles, glands and sense organs located through the body.  These are all the neurons outside of the (CNS). We have two more nervous systems that branch off our (PNS), these are the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system.

The somatic nervous system regulates movement of the body's skeletal muscles.  This nervous system contains two types of fibres:

-  Afferent signals
-  Efferent signals (motor neurons)

Afferent signals send information about the internal organs, muscles, body position and peripheral sensations.

Efferent signals form the motor portion of spinal nerves.

These two types of fibres are a network of nerves.

The autonomic nervous system controls muscles we have no control over and regulates our breathing, heart rate (HR), (BP), some glands, and our heart.  There are three branches to this nervous system. We have our sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric divisions.

The sympathetic division controls arousal and activities that require energy expenditure that prepares the body for action.  It also alerts the brain for 'fight or flight' situations.  It does this by increasing (BP), (HR), blood sugar levels and adrenaline.  It converts stored energy into useable energy by increasing the flow of blood to areas that will need it.

The parasympathetic division calms the body's state, conserves energy and eliminates waste products. It also slows the (HR) and stimulation of digestion.

HOPE THIS HELPS!