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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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the nervous system |
the body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous system |
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central nervous system (CNS) |
Consists of the brain and spinal cord (the body's decision maker) |
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peripheral nervous system (PNS) |
Is responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts |
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nerves |
electrical cables formed of bundles of axons link the CNS with the body's sensory receptors, muscles, and glands |
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sensory neurons |
carry messages from the body's tissues and sensory receptors inward to the brain and spinal cord for processing |
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motor neurons |
carry instructions from the CNS out to the body's muscles and glands |
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interneurons |
processes information in the brain's internal communication system |
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What are the two components of the peripheral nervous system? |
somatic and autonomic |
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somatic nervous system |
enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles (SNS) |
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autonomic nervous system |
controls our glands and the muscles of our internal organs influencing such functions as glandular activity, heartbeat, and digestion |
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What are the two important, basic functions of the autonomic nervous system? |
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system |
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sympathetic nervous system |
arouses and expends energy (accelerates your heartbeat, raise your blood pressure, slow your digestion, raise your blood sugar, and cool you with perspiration) |
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parasympathetic nervous system |
will produce the opposite effects, conserving energy as it calms you by descending your heartbeat, lowering your blood sugar, and so forth |
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reflexes |
automatic responses to stimuli |
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endocrine system |
interconnected with your nervous system, the body's slow chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream |
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hormones |
chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands that travel through the bloodstream and affect other tissues (sex, food, aggression) |
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adrenal glands |
pairs of endocrine glands that sit above the kidneys and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress |
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pituitary glands |
(the most influential) under the influence of the hypothalamus and regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands |
