You hear the sound of your favorite song, Hotline Bling, coming from your phone. You think your radio randomly turned on from your phone, but your phone is actually ringing. In a matter of seconds after hearing your phone ring, you run to your phone. Finally, you pick up your phone and answer it. Although a process such as answering your phone may sound simple, there are many activities and processes that are occurring in your body to make answering your phone possible. One primary human body system that collects stimulus and impulses which channel them throughout the body to allow a response to occur is called the nervous system. The nervous system has many unique cells, about 100 billion, called …show more content…
Depending on the location of the neuron (i.e. the brain or the spinal cord), the length of the axon can be different. For example, the axons in the brain are shorter (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillio, 2015). The axon carries the neural impulse away from the cell body. Several structures to note that are present on the axon include the myelin sheath and the nodes of Ranvier. The myelin sheath helps with the insulation of the neural impulse and the nodes of Ranvier are the spaces that are uncovered by the myelin sheath. Once the neural impulse reaches the end of the axon, the neural impulse is now at the terminal button, also known as the axon bulb. The axon bulb contains many neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that relay messages to another neuron between the synapses, the space between the axon bulb and the dendrites of another neuron. The synaptic gap does not come in contact with one another. The area where the neurotransmitters are released is called the presynaptic gap and the area where the neurotransmitters come in contact with the dendrites is called the postsynaptic gap. (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillio, 2015). In the case of answering the cell phone, the neurotransmitter that will be released is acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that excites skeletal muscles and provides movement (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillio, 2015). The process of neuron transferring the impulse is a continuous …show more content…
The information is then moved by the interneurons. The individual neurons carry the impulse from the dendrites, through the cell body, and to the axons. Once the impulse reaches the end of the axon bulb, the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, is released. The motor neurons carry the impulse from the interneurons and central nervous system to the peripheral nervous system. The voluntary body movement of picking up the phone and answering it occurs when the motor neurons transmit the information to the body.
Often times, activities such as answering the phone are seen as a simple process. However, we can see and understand the vast amount of work and processes that occur within the human body to make these function possible. Many tasks may be very simple, but the nervous system allows these functions to occur regardless of