Co-ordination and Response

Nervous
Control
in
Humans
Instructional Objectives
The Nervous System
• The mammalian/human nervous system consists of the:
• central nervous system (CNS) – the brain and the spinal cord
• peripheral nervous system (PNS) – all of the nerves in the body
except brain and spinal cord
• It allows us to make sense of our surroundings and respond to
them and to coordinate and regulate body functions
• Information is sent through the nervous system as nerve
impulses – electrical impulses/signals that travel along nerve
cells known as neurones
• A bundle of neurones is known as a nerve
The human nervous system
Types of Neurone
• There are three main types of neurone: sensory, relay and motor
• Sensory neurones carry impulses from sense organs (receptors) to the CNS (brain or spinal
cord)
• Relay neurons (connectors) are found inside the CNS and connect sensory and motor
neurones
• Motor neurones carry impulses from the CNS to effectors (muscles or glands)
• Neurones have a long fibre (axon)
• This means that less time is wasted transferring the impulse from one cell to another
• The axon is insulated by a fatty sheath with small uninsulated sections along it (called
nodes)
• This means that the electrical impulse does not travel down the whole axon, but jumps
from one node to the next
• Their cell body contains many extensions called dendrites
• This means they can connect to many other neurones and receive impulses from them,
forming a network for easy communication
Neurone
Function of insulating sheath
• The insulating sheath of a neurone consists of fat-containing cells that
insulate the nerve fibres from electrical activity

• This insulation acts to increase the rate of transmission of nerve

impulse. Should this sheath breaks down, nerve impulse will be
slowed down or eventually stops being transmitted
• Identifying the types of neurone:

The three types of neurone

Types of Neurone
• Sensory neurones are long and have a cell body branching off the
middle of the axon
• Relay neurones are short and have a small cell body at one end with
many dendrites branching off it
• Motor neurones are long and have a large cell body at one end with
long dendrites branching off it
Voluntary and involuntary actions
• A voluntary response is one where you make a conscious decision to
carry out a particular action therefore it starts with your brain
• An involuntary (or reflex) response does not involve the brain as the
coordinator of the reaction and you are not aware you have
completed it until after you have carried it out
• Involuntary actions are usually ones which are essential to basic
survival and are rapid, whereas voluntary responses often take
longer as we consider what the response might be before doing it
Voluntary vs. Involuntary actions
Voluntary actions Involuntary actions

- Happens by control of choice - Happens automatically

- Controlled by brain - Controlled by spinal cord or medulla

oblongata

- Examples: see a book on the floor and - Examples: knee jerk, blood pressure
choose to pick it, see a flower in the control, breathing rate control, heartbeat
garden and choose to pluck it control, digestion
 The spinal cord
• Part of CNS

• Has thousands of neurones

• Cell bodies of neurones are concentrated in

grey matter (centre)

• White matter, on the other hand, contains the

nerve fibres, which some are connected to grey
matter and some others connect brain to spinal
nerves
The spinal cord

Sensory neurone

Motor neurone
 The spinal cord: functions
• Control reflex actions (reflex arc)

• Channel sensory impulses from skin and

muscles to brain through dorsal root

• Channel motor impulses from brain to muscles

of the limbs (arms and feet) through ventral root
 Ganglion
• A bulge (like a swelling) of cell bodies of
sensory neurones

• Located in the dorsal root, thus called as dorsal

root ganglion
 Synapses
• A junction between two neurones (sensory /
relay / motor)

• At this junction, nerve impulses cross from 1

neurone to the other by using the action of
neurotransmitter

• Examples of neurotransmitter:
- acetylcholine
- noradrenaline (norepinephrine)
- dopamine
- serotonin
How a synapse transmits an electrical
impulse
• Nerve impulse arrives at the synapse and vesicles in the cytoplasm
release a substance called neurotransmitter

• This neurotransmitter will diffuse across the synaptic

cleft/synaptic gap

• It will then bind with neurotransmitter receptor molecules on the

next neurone and enough concentration will trigger next nerve
impulse
 The synapse: closer look
• The junction
between two
neurones is
known as
a synapse

A synapse
How an impulse is passed across
a synapse
• Neurones never touch each other
• The junctions (gaps) in between them are called synapses
• The electrical impulse travels along the first axon
• This triggers the nerve-ending of the presynaptic neurone to
release chemical messengers called neurotransmitters from vesicles
which fuse with the presynaptic membrane
• The neurotransmitters diffuse across the synaptic gap and bind with
receptor molecules on the membrane of the second neurone (known
as the post synaptic membrane)
How an impulse is passed across
a synapse
• This stimulates the second neurone to generate an electrical impulse
that travels down the second axon
• The neurotransmitters are then destroyed to prevent continued
stimulation of the second neurone which would cause repeated
impulses to be sent
• Synapses ensure that impulses only travel in one direction, avoiding
confusion within the nervous system if impulses were travelling in
both directions
• As this is the only part of the nervous system where messages
are chemical as opposed to electrical, it is the only place where drugs
can act to affect the nervous system – eg this is where heroin works
How an impulse is passed on at a synapse
• For maximum marks you will need to be able to understand the
structure and functioning of a synapse and explain what happens at
each step
Reflexes: The
• A reflex action is a means of automatically and rapidly integrating
and coordinating stimuli with the responses of effectors (muscles and
glands)
• An involuntary (or reflex) response does not involve the brain as the
coordinator (brain is only informed) of the reaction and you are not
aware you have completed it until after you have carried it out
• This is an automatic and rapid response to a stimulus such as
touching something sharp or hot
• As it does not involve the brain, a reflex response is quicker than any
other type of nervous response
• This helps to minimise the damage to the body
A reflex
Reflexes: The
• The pin (the stimulus) is detected by a pain/pressure/touch receptor
in the skin
• Sensory neurone sends electrical impulses to the spinal cord (the
coordinator)
• Electrical impulse is passed on to relay neurone in the spinal cord
• Relay neurone connects to motor neurone and passes the impulse on
• Motor neurone carries impulse to a muscle in the leg (the effector)
• The muscle will contract and pull the foot up and away from the
sharp object (the response)
The reflex pathway
 Reflexes
• Apart from reflex arc when one touches hot/sharp
items, there are also other spinal reflexes like:

- blinking
- coughing
- iris contraction in different light intensities

• Similarly to inevitable response of reflex arc,

these reflexes are also not consciously controlled
• Reflex actions are:
• Automatic
• Fast
• Protective
• A common exam question to be asked is to draw arrows on
the neurones in the reflex arc diagram to show the direction
of movement of the impulse
• Make sure you read questions carefully – not all questions
have a line underneath them to write an answer