Nervous System (Science Assignment)
Nervous System (Science Assignment)
Nervous System (Science Assignment)
Nervous system
systema nervosum
The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells calledneurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous system of vertebrates (such as humans) contains the brain, spinal cord, and retina. The peripheral nervous system consists of sensory neurons, clusters of neurons called ganglia, and nerves connecting them to each other and to the central nervous system. These regions are all interconnected by means of complex neural pathways. The enteric nervous system, a subsystem of the peripheral nervous system, has the capacity, even when severed from the rest of the nervous system through its primary connection by the vagus nerve, to function independently in controlling the gastrointestinal system.
Neurons send signals to other cells as electrochemical waves travelling along thin fibers called axons, which cause chemicals called neurotransmitters to be released at junctions called synapses. A cell that receives a synaptic signal may be excited, inhibited, or otherwise modulated. Sensory neurons are activated by physical stimuli impinging on them, and send signals that inform the central nervous system of the state of the body and the external environment. Motor neurons, situated either in the central nervous system or in peripheral ganglia, connect the nervous system to muscles or other effector organs. Central neurons, which in vertebrates greatly outnumber the other types, make all of their input and output connections with other neurons. The interactions of all these types of neurons form neural circuits that generate an organism's perception of the world and determine its behavior. Along with neurons, the nervous system contains other specialized cells called glial cells (or simply glia), which provide structural and metabolic support. Nervous systems are found in most multicellular animals, but vary greatly in complexity.
[1]
Sponges have no nervous system, although they have homologs of many genes that play crucial
roles in nervous system function, and are capable of several whole-body responses, including a primitive form of locomotion. Placozoans and mesozoansother simple animals that are not classified as part of the subkingdomEumetazoaalso have no nervous system. In Radiata (radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish) the nervous system consists of a simple nerve net. Bilateria, which include the great majority of vertebrates and invertebrates, all have a nervous system containing a brain, one central cord (or two running in parallel), and nerves. The size of the bilaterian nervous system ranges from a few hundred cells in the simplest worms, to on the order of 100 billion cells in humans. Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system.
Structure
The nervous system derives its name from nerves, which are cylindrical bundles of fibers that emanate from the brain and central cord, and branch repeatedly to innervate every part of the body. [2] Nerves are large enough to have been recognized by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans,[3] but their internal structure was not understood until it became possible to examine them using a microscope.[4] A microscopic examination shows that nerves consist primarily of the axons of neurons, along with a variety of membranes that wrap around them and segregate them into fascicles. The neurons that give rise to nerves do not lie entirely within the nerves themselvestheir cell bodies reside within the brain, central cord, or peripheral ganglia.[2] All animals more advanced than sponges have nervous systems. However, even sponges, unicellular animals, and non-animals such as slime molds have cell-to-cell signalling mechanisms that are precursors to those of neurons.[5] In radially symmetric animals such as the jellyfish and hydra, the nervous system consists of a diffuse network of isolated cells.[6] In bilaterian animals, which make up the great majority of existing species, the nervous system has a common structure that originated early in the Cambrian period, over 500 million years ago.[7]
Cells
The nervous system contains two main categories or types of cells: neurons and glial cells.
Neurons
Structure of a typical neuron
Neuron
The nervous system is defined by the presence of a special type of cellthe neuron (sometimes called "neurone" or "nerve cell").[2]Neurons can be distinguished from other cells in a number of ways, but their most fundamental property is that they communicate with other cells via synapses, which are membrane-to-membrane junctions containing molecular machinery that allows rapid transmission of signals, either electrical or chemical.[2] Many types of neuron possess an axon, a
protoplasmic protrusion that can extend to distant parts of the body and make thousands of synaptic contacts.[8] Axons frequently travel through the body in bundles called nerves. Even in the nervous system of a single species such as humans, hundreds of different types of neurons exist, with a wide variety of morphologies and functions.[8] These include sensory neurons that transmute physical stimuli such as light and sound into neural signals, and motor neurons that transmute neural signals into activation of muscles or glands; however in many species the great majority of neurons receive all of their input from other neurons and send their output to other neurons.[2]
Function
At the most basic level, the function of the nervous system is to send signals from one cell to others, or from one part of the body to others. There are multiple ways that a cell can send signals to other cells. One is by releasing chemicals called hormones into the internal circulation, so that they can diffuse to distant sites. In contrast to this "broadcast" mode of signaling, the nervous system provides "point-to-point" signalsneurons project their axons to specific target areas and make synaptic connections with specific target cells.[31] Thus, neural signaling is capable of a much higher level of specificity than hormonal signaling. It is also much faster: the fastest nerve signals travel at speeds that exceed 100 meters per second. At a more integrative level, the primary function of the nervous system is to control the body.[2] It does this by extracting information from the environment using sensory receptors, sending signals that encode this information into the central nervous system, processing the information to determine an appropriate response, and sending output signals to muscles or glands to activate the response. The evolution of a complex nervous system has made it possible for various animal species to have advanced perception abilities such as vision, complex social interactions, rapid coordination of organ systems, and integrated processing of concurrent signals. In humans, the sophistication of the nervous system makes it possible to have language, abstract representation of concepts, transmission of culture, and many other features of human society that would not exist without the human brain.
Major elements in synaptic transmission. An electrochemical wave called an action potential travels along the axon of a neuron. When the wave reaches a synapse, it provokes release of a small amount ofneurotransmitter molecules, which bind to chemical receptor molecules located in the membrane of the target cell.
Most neurons send signals via their axons, although some types are capable of dendrite-to-dendrite communication. (In fact, the types of neurons called amacrine cells have no axons, and communicate only via their dendrites.) Neural signals propagate along an axon in the form of electrochemical waves called action potentials, which produce cell-to-cell signals at points where axon terminals make synaptic contact with other cells.[32] Synapses may be electrical or chemical. Electrical synapses make direct electrical connections between neurons,[33] but chemical synapses are much more common, and much more diverse in function.[34] At a chemical synapse, the cell that sends signals is called presynaptic, and the cell that receives signals is called postsynaptic. Both the presynaptic and postsynaptic areas are full of molecular machinery that carries out the signalling process. The presynaptic area contains large numbers of tiny spherical vessels called synaptic vesicles, packed with neurotransmitterchemicals. [32] When the presynaptic terminal is electrically stimulated, an array of molecules embedded in the membrane are activated, and cause the contents of the vesicles to be released into the narrow space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes, called the synaptic cleft. The
neurotransmitter then binds to receptors embedded in the postsynaptic membrane, causing them to enter an activated state.[34] Depending on the type of receptor, the resulting effect on the postsynaptic cell may be excitatory, inhibitory, or modulatory in more complex ways. For example, release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine at a synaptic contact between a motor neuron and a muscle cell induces rapid contraction of the muscle cell.[35] The entire synaptic transmission process takes only a fraction of a millisecond, although the effects on the postsynaptic cell may last much longer (even indefinitely, in cases where the synaptic signal leads to the formation of a memory trace).[8] There are literally hundreds of different types of synapses. In fact, there are over a hundred known neurotransmitters, and many of them have multiple types of receptors.[36] Many synapses use more than one neurotransmittera common arrangement is for a synapse to use one fast-acting smallmolecule neurotransmitter such as glutamate or GABA, along with one or more peptideneurotransmitters that play slower-acting modulatory roles. Molecular neuroscientists generally divide receptors into two broad groups: chemically gated ion channels and second messenger systems. When a chemically gated ion channel is activated, it forms a passage that allow specific types of ion to flow across the membrane. Depending on the type of ion, the effect on the target cell may be excitatory or inhibitory. When a second messenger system is activated, it starts a cascade of molecular interactions inside the target cell, which may ultimately produce a wide variety of complex effects, such as increasing or decreasing the sensitivity of the cell to stimuli, or even altering gene transcription.