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Peripheral Nervous System

The peripheral nervous system consists of the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. The somatic system is under voluntary control and controls skeletal muscles. Neurons are the basic functional units that receive, process, and transmit nerve signals in the body. They have a cell body that contains genetic material and sends out dendrites to receive signals and a long axon to transmit signals to other neurons. Communication between neurons occurs at synapses, where neurotransmitters are released by the axon of one neuron and received by the dendrites of the next.

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Tahir Ahmad
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12 views

Peripheral Nervous System

The peripheral nervous system consists of the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. The somatic system is under voluntary control and controls skeletal muscles. Neurons are the basic functional units that receive, process, and transmit nerve signals in the body. They have a cell body that contains genetic material and sends out dendrites to receive signals and a long axon to transmit signals to other neurons. Communication between neurons occurs at synapses, where neurotransmitters are released by the axon of one neuron and received by the dendrites of the next.

Uploaded by

Tahir Ahmad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Peripheral Nervous System

It consist of
• Somatic nervous system
• Autonomic Nervous system
Somatic Nervous System
• This system is under voluntary control
• It controls the skeletal muscles of the body
The Neuron:
• Neurons are microscopically small cells
• They are tiny and complex
• All behavior begins with action of the neurons
• Involves to receive process and transmit information to other cells in the body
• They vary in shape, size, chemical composition and function
• It gathers information at one end and transmits signals at other end
Cell body
• All neurons are certain to have a cell body or soma
• It contains the nucleus of the cell that contains genetic information
• It keeps the cell functioning
• It contains the cytoplasm that sustains the cell’s life
• Soma contains all information that are coming from dendrites and passes it to fiber and axon
• It is circular in shape
• It furnishes the cells with nutrients and manufactures chemicals used in transmitting information
Dendrites
• It is derived from Greek word meaning tree
• They are branch like extensions from a neuron’s cell body where most neural impulses are received
• They reach up to receive messages called neural impulses from other neuron
Axon
• It is a long tail like extension of neuron
• It carries an impulse away from the cell body towards the synapse
• It takes the signal from soma and conduct it along its length
• It ends in swollen, bulb like structures called terminal buttons
• Neuron transmit information in only one direction from the axon of one neuron to the dendrites or cell bodies of the next
Myelin sheath
• It is white fatty covering found on some axons
• They insulate and protect them while increasing the speed of impulse
• Neurons are covered with glial cell
• They don’t conduct information as neurons
• They have three important functions i.e garbage removal, insulation and poison control
• When neurons damaged or dead glial cells in the area multiply and cleanup the cellular junk left behind
• Second function in vertebrate is to form an insulating covers called myelin sheath around the larger axon
• Third function of glial is to prevent poisonous substance in the blood from reaching the delicate cells of the brain
Types of neurons
Three types of neurons can be identified :
1. Sensory neuron
2. Motor neuron
3. interneurons
Sensory neurons
• They are called afferent neurons
• They carry messages in; towards the central nervous system from cells
in the periphery that are sensitive to light, sound, body position
• It transmit pulses received by receptors to the central nervous system
• Receptors are specialized cell in the sense organs, muscles, skin and
joints
• The information travels from each sensory neuron’s dendrites to its
soma and then along its axon
• After reaching the spinal cord the information is relayed up to a certain
area of the brain
Motor neurons
• They are called efferent neurons
• They carry messages out; away from central nervous system to the
muscles and glands
Interneurons
• Sensory neuron rarely communicate directly with motor neuron.
Between them is usually a third category of neurons called
interneurons
• For every motor neuron in the body there are as many as 5000
interneurons
• Find only in brain and spinal cord
Synapse
• Junction between axon of one neuron and dendrite of other neuron is known as synapse.
• It has a gap between called synaptic cleft
• Distance is 0.2nm
• To bridge the gap and get the neural message across to next neuron in line, the electrical conduction in axon changed to chemical
transmission
• The signal is carried by chemical messengers from one side of synapse which is pre-synaptic membrane of terminal button swellings filled
with the tiny packets that store chemical across to the post synaptic membrane of next neuron. This process of chemical transmission is
called neurotransmitters.
• When neural impulse travels down the axon and arrives at the axon terminals, it triggers the secretion of chemical called neurotransmitter
• Neurotransmitter substance travels across the synaptic gap and stimulate the next neuron
Reflex Arc
• Sudden involuntary response to certain stimulus is called reflex
action.
• Pathway of reflex action is called reflex arc

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