Nervous System

• The brain contains about 10 billion cells that regulate: Your conscious acts, your involuntary functions, and your emotions
• Sends and interprets “messages” through the help of NEURONS. 


  Job of the Nervous System
• Allows the entire body, inside and out, to work together

  Job of the Nervous System
• Specialized cells that carry information from the brain to the body and from the body to the brain.


  Neurons (Nerve Cell)
• Dendrites came from the Greek Dendron means tree branches.
• Carry information from the senses to CNS to do the action.


  Axons
• You have two types of nerves: Sensory Nerves and Motor Nerves
• Carries messages from the sense receptors to the brain and spinal cord.

  Sensory Nerves
• Carries messages from the brain to the muscles, glands, and other body structures, resulting in actions.

  Motor Nerves
• Parts of Nervous System:

  CNS - Central Nervous System

  PNS - Peripheral Nervous System
• Includes the brain and spinal cord, it’s the body’s main control center.


  Central Nervous System
• Includes the nerves that connect the CNS to all parts of the body.

  Peripheral Nervous System
• The brain weighs about 3 pounds.
• It’s the largest part of the brain, it controls your ability to think, memorize, and learn. It also receives messages from your senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste)

  Cerebrum
• It is located beneath the back part of the cerebrum. It coordinates body movement. It controls balance, posture, and coordination.

  Cerebellum
• It controls your involuntary muscle actions such as breathing.


  Medulla
• It regulates breathing and helps to control eye movement.

  Pons
• It is also linked to vision and controls the movement of the eye, and dilation of the pupil.


  Midbrain
• Smaller parts of the brain which serves a relay station for senses.

  Thalamus
• It is a rod of brain tissue that extends about two-thirds of the way down the back, just below the ribs.

  Spinal Cord
• Covered with three meninges and cerebrospinal fluid.


  Spinal Cord
• It is protected by a spinal column, which allows the trunk to bend.

  Spinal Cord
• Peripheral Nervous System:

  SOMATIC NS - voluntary

  AUTONOMIC NS - involuntary
• Parts of the brain:

  Cerebrum, Cerebellum, Medulla, Pons, Midbrain, and Thalamus
• Is responsible for actions that a person can control such as skeletal muscles.

  SOMATIC NS
• Autonomic functions which do not require a person to think.

  AUTONOMIC NS
• Problems with the Nervous System:

  -Parkinson's

  -Epilepsy

  -Alzheimer's

  -Meningitis
• Shaking and stiffness of the arms and legs. Loss of “substantia nigra”

  Parkinson’s
• Seizures, as a result of abnormal electrical activity in brain, disrupts electrical impulse pattern.

  Epilepsy
• Affects mostly older people, it is inflamed areas in the brain and death of neurons (atrophy). Leads to memory loss and dementia.

  Alzheimer’s
• An inflammation of the meninges of the brain or spinal cord caused by bacterial infection or a virus. The infection occurs most often in children and young adults.

  Meningitis
• Vitamins for the brain:

  Fish oil, vegetable oil, vitamin D, and vitamin B-12.