Nervous System
A really important part of the nervous system is its role in allowing you to interact with the world. Nerves ferry information to you about the world and nerves also carry commands to parts of the body (such as the muscles), which allow you to do things within your environment.
Having a body that works is pretty cool, however life alone is not enough (I wonder what the Latin for that last bit is, it would make an ace motto). What you need for the full human experience is to be able to interact with the environment around you. To smell sweet flowers, to take in the beauty of a stunning woman or guy (or both if you like), play and enjoy music and to taste great food (among many other things).
The job of muscle is to contract and in doing so they move – see muscular system. When muscle is attached to bone, the skeleton is moved (see skeletal system), taking the rest of you with it and allowing your body to affect the world around it. However you also need to have control of those muscles and this is the job of the nervous system. The nervous system also allows you to experience the world around you, as it carries information about many different types of perception (light, temperature, pain, touch, taste, sound and others) to the brain, where this information is perceived and decisions are made regarding how you will respond.
The nerves are the wiring of the body and they carry information. Information is carried by the nerves to the brain, from the brain to other parts of the body and also between different parts of the body, without even involving the brain. Information can include things concerned with vision, hearing, touch, pain, movement and anything else concerned with one part of the body communicating with another part.
The basic part of the nervous system is called a nerve (surprising eh.), or a neurone. The link below illustrates nerve structure and also how nerves carry information:
Having a body that works is pretty cool, however life alone is not enough (I wonder what the Latin for that last bit is, it would make an ace motto). What you need for the full human experience is to be able to interact with the environment around you. To smell sweet flowers, to take in the beauty of a stunning woman or guy (or both if you like), play and enjoy music and to taste great food (among many other things).
The job of muscle is to contract and in doing so they move – see muscular system. When muscle is attached to bone, the skeleton is moved (see skeletal system), taking the rest of you with it and allowing your body to affect the world around it. However you also need to have control of those muscles and this is the job of the nervous system. The nervous system also allows you to experience the world around you, as it carries information about many different types of perception (light, temperature, pain, touch, taste, sound and others) to the brain, where this information is perceived and decisions are made regarding how you will respond.
The nerves are the wiring of the body and they carry information. Information is carried by the nerves to the brain, from the brain to other parts of the body and also between different parts of the body, without even involving the brain. Information can include things concerned with vision, hearing, touch, pain, movement and anything else concerned with one part of the body communicating with another part.
The basic part of the nervous system is called a nerve (surprising eh.), or a neurone. The link below illustrates nerve structure and also how nerves carry information:
The nervous system is divided into:
-The central nervous system – including the brain and the spine
-The peripheral nervous system – connecting the brain and spine to the rest of the body
The central nervous system
The spine relays information (via nerves) between the brain and the skin, muscles and joints, while the brain also receives information directly from the ears, eyes, mouth and nose.
The brain can be divided into two sides (left and right) and each side can be divided into areas which coordinate information of different purposes:
-The frontal lobe can be divided into the prefrontal cortex (this is concerned with much of what makes you the person you are. This is where your personality is, along with emotions and decision making), the motor cortex (this is where voluntary movement is planned, controlled and executed) and the Broca’s area (concerned with speech and language).
-The parietal lobe is concerned with mapping. This is where the world around you is mapped and managed. Also within the parietal lobe is the somatosensory cortex, where the body is mapped (eg this would let you know perform tasks in the dark…I’m not sure what though, perhaps use your imagination…or not).
-The temporal lobe is concerned with memory and applying this to recognition, perception (hearing/vision/smell), understanding language and learning.
-The occipital lobe is concerned with visual perception, colour recognition and the orientation and motion of images.
-The cerebellum is involved with movement learning and control.
-The Pons is a junction within the brain, linking the lobes with the cerebellum. It is involved with things such as sleep, breathing, swallowing, facial expressions and hearing, taste.
It’s interesting (though probably obvious if you thought about it) to know that the different parts of the brain don’t work in isolation. There are loads of connecting pathways within the brain, linking up the various parts. Examples of these are pathways linking the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe (allowing you to map the things you can see on to your environment) and the occipital lobe to the temporal lobe (allowing you to remember what a particular object is). These two pathways are particularly useful, as if you see a lion which is on the loose; it’s nice to identify how far away it is from you and also to remember that it may eat you!
The peripheral nervous system is divided into the autonomic nervous system and the somatic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is concerned with coordinating things that don’t require you to know about them. Things like heart rate, breathing rate and sweating, which you would rather not be having to remember to do and don’t really need to know that they are going on. The somatic nervous system is concerned with coordinating things that you do need to know about. Things like movement and perception. Therefore if you wanted to sound really clever, you could say that something like “dancing is facilitated by the somatic portion of the peripheral nervous system and its interaction with the central nervous system”. However, I would of course point out that when I dance it due to me being a slave to the funk!
-The central nervous system – including the brain and the spine
-The peripheral nervous system – connecting the brain and spine to the rest of the body
The central nervous system
The spine relays information (via nerves) between the brain and the skin, muscles and joints, while the brain also receives information directly from the ears, eyes, mouth and nose.
The brain can be divided into two sides (left and right) and each side can be divided into areas which coordinate information of different purposes:
-The frontal lobe can be divided into the prefrontal cortex (this is concerned with much of what makes you the person you are. This is where your personality is, along with emotions and decision making), the motor cortex (this is where voluntary movement is planned, controlled and executed) and the Broca’s area (concerned with speech and language).
-The parietal lobe is concerned with mapping. This is where the world around you is mapped and managed. Also within the parietal lobe is the somatosensory cortex, where the body is mapped (eg this would let you know perform tasks in the dark…I’m not sure what though, perhaps use your imagination…or not).
-The temporal lobe is concerned with memory and applying this to recognition, perception (hearing/vision/smell), understanding language and learning.
-The occipital lobe is concerned with visual perception, colour recognition and the orientation and motion of images.
-The cerebellum is involved with movement learning and control.
-The Pons is a junction within the brain, linking the lobes with the cerebellum. It is involved with things such as sleep, breathing, swallowing, facial expressions and hearing, taste.
It’s interesting (though probably obvious if you thought about it) to know that the different parts of the brain don’t work in isolation. There are loads of connecting pathways within the brain, linking up the various parts. Examples of these are pathways linking the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe (allowing you to map the things you can see on to your environment) and the occipital lobe to the temporal lobe (allowing you to remember what a particular object is). These two pathways are particularly useful, as if you see a lion which is on the loose; it’s nice to identify how far away it is from you and also to remember that it may eat you!
The peripheral nervous system is divided into the autonomic nervous system and the somatic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is concerned with coordinating things that don’t require you to know about them. Things like heart rate, breathing rate and sweating, which you would rather not be having to remember to do and don’t really need to know that they are going on. The somatic nervous system is concerned with coordinating things that you do need to know about. Things like movement and perception. Therefore if you wanted to sound really clever, you could say that something like “dancing is facilitated by the somatic portion of the peripheral nervous system and its interaction with the central nervous system”. However, I would of course point out that when I dance it due to me being a slave to the funk!