nervous system

• Functions of CNS

  • Controls body's responses
  • regulate physiological processes
• Spinal cord functions

  • relays information between the brain and the rest of the body allowing the brain to monitor bodily processes
  • responsible for simple reflexes without brain involvement(circuits of nerve cells)
• Brain regions


  Different areas of the brain responsible for specific functions
• Cerebrum

  High order functions (eg.conscious thinking and problem solving)
• Cerebrum lobes

  • Frontal lobe
  • Occipital lobe
  • Pre-frontal
  • Temporal lobe
• Frontal lobe


  • Speech
  • Learning
  • Language
• Occipital lobe


  • Visual information
• Pre-frontal


  • Sensory information
• Temporal lobe


  • Hearing
  • Memory
• Cerebellum


  Control and balance, motor skills, coordination
• Brain stem


  Regulates autonomic functions (eg. heart rate)
• Diencephalon


  Made up of the thalamus and hypothalamus
• Peripheral nervous system


  Parts of the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord
• Function of Peripheral nervous system

  • Relay nerve impulses from CNS to the rest of the body
  • Relay nerve impulses back to CNS
• Somatic nervous system


  Responsible for carrying sensory and motor information to and from the CNS
• Autonomic nervous system


  Governs the brain's involuntary activities and is self-regulating
• Sympathetic nervous system

  • Involved in emergency responses
  • Fight or flight response
  • Increases heart rate and blood pressure
  • Slows down less important processes
• Parasympathetic nervous system

  • Regulates organs after an emergency
  • Rest and digest
  • Involved in energy conservation and digestion
• how CNS performs function

  • Receives sensory information
  • Sends messages to muscles and glands