Question

Discuss the two major divisions of the nervous system (central & peripheral). What is included in the central nervous system?

Answer 1

Nervous system:

  It is a network of nerve cells and fibres .It is responsible for transmitting nerve impulses between parts of the body. two major divisions of nervous system are

1.Central nervous system

2.Peripheral nervous system

1.CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM:

It is combination of brain and spinal cord. Receiving sensory information and controlling body's responses is the task of central nervous system.

What is included in the central nervous system?

Central nervous system contains mainly 3 parts.

1.Brain

2.The spinal cord

3.Neurons

Brain:

It controls our body functions like sensation, thought, movement, awareness and memory etc.,

Spinal cord:

Through the brain stem the spinal cord connects to the brain. It exchanges the information inbetween body and brain. Some responses and reflexes are controlled by spinal pathways without the involvement of the brain.

Neurons:

Roughly 86 billion neurons exists in human brain only and these are the building blocks of central nervous system. Neurons exists throughout the body and communicate with one another. These are responsible for physical responses and actions.

2.PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM:

It is the division of the nervous system. Connecting CNS to the organs, limbs and skin is the task of Pheripheral nervous system. Pheripheral nerves extend from the CNS to the outer most areas of the body.

a.With the help of pheripheral nerves we react to the stimuli in our environment.

b.It allows the brain and spinal cord to send and receive information from other areas of the body.

It is also divided into two divisions

a. The somatic nervous system

b.The autonomic nervous system.