Nervous System: Control And Coordination
The Nervous system is a specialized system in animals. This system aids in the coordination of voluntary and involuntary actions, reflex actions in our body. The nervous system consists of nerve cells (neurons). They transmit messages in the form of electrical impulses through neurons and convey to our sense organs. Let us go into more detail on the neural system.
Nervous system
Nervous coordination involves the participation of our sense organs, nerves, spinal cord, and brain. The changes around us are detected by our sense organs because they have neurons at their tips. Neurons consist of dendrites, cell body, nucleus, and axon. The information detected by dendrites are converted into impulses and are passed onto cell body. Axon collects these impulses. At the nerve ending, electrical impulses are converted into chemicals and released. The chemicals will be passed to next neuron through a gap called synapse. This is how one neuron transfers the messages to another neuron.
Neural system: Neuron
The neural system controls three types of actions: voluntary action, involuntary action, and reflex action.
Reflex action:
Reflex action or reflex is an involuntary action in response to a stimulus. This is a spontaneous action without thinking. For example, we adjust our eyes when exposed to bright light. Peripheral nervous system (PNS) is a system of nerves which connect central nervous system (CNS) (includes brain and spinal cord) with other parts of the body. Reflex action is the result of coordination of spinal cord and peripheral nervous system. This action does not involve the brain. The pathway in which impulses travel during the reflex action is called a reflex arc.
Voluntary action:
When an action is produced with the involvement of thoughts, they are called the voluntary action. For example, writing an article, jumping from heights. These actions are produced consciously by our body. Here both spinal cord and brain are involved and these coordinate with PNS to generate necessary movements.
Involuntary action:
Actions which take place without consciousness or willingness of an individual are called the involuntary action. Digestion, heart beating, sneezing, etc are few examples of involuntary actions.
Both involuntary and voluntary actions are controlled by same parts of the brain. Hindbrain and midbrain control the involuntary actions like salivation, vomiting, etc. while voluntary actions like walking, riding a bike, body balancing, etc. are also the responsibility of hindbrain.
