Comparing Nerves and Hormones

• Nerves

  Carry messages quickly
• Hormones

  Carry messages slowly
• Nerves

  • Carry information and instructions around the body
  • Act quickly
• Hormones

  • Carry information and instructions around the body
  • Act slowly
  • Act for a long time
  • Act in a more general way
• If the response is really quick

  It's probably nervous
• If the response lasts for a long time

  It's probably hormonal
• Nerves need to pass information to effectors really quickly (e.g. pain or information from your eyes telling you about the lion heading your way)</b>
• Hormones are too slow to carry messages that need to be passed quickly
• When you get a shock, a hormone called adrenaline is released into the body (causing the fight or flight response, where your body is hyped up ready for action)
• You can tell it's a hormonal response (even though it kicks in pretty quickly) because you feel a bit wobbly for a while afterwards
• Hormones control various organs and cells in the body, though they tend to control things that aren't life-threatening so things like sexual development, blood sugar level, water content, etc.