Picture a command centre full of computers and workers, forming the central place for an operation to be managed and orders to be carried out. Now imagine that each person has this same centre of operations in their body, called the nervous system. It practically controls everything we do, including our thoughts, feelings, and movements. It even controls our breathing.

• We will start by taking a look at the nervous system definition.
• To understand how the nervous system operates we will delve into the nervous system structure and nervous system function.
• To finish off we will cover some examples of nervous system disorders.

Nervous System Definition

Considering how important the nervous system is, it’s important we understand the definition of it overall. We can define the nervous system as:

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Our nervous systems are crucial to supporting bodily functions and coordinating movements in response to the environment (stimuli).

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The nervous system allows you to respond to the environment, clipart.me

Nervous System Structure

To understand the different parts of the nervous system, we must differentiate between the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. They are made up of different components, so it’s important you remember their differences.

The Central Nervous System (CNS)

The central nervous system comprises the brain and the spinal cord and controls communications between the brain and the body, acting as a command centre of sorts. The peripheral nervous system connects the CNS to the body to allow the CNS to enact commands.

How does this work?

Parts of our body, such as muscles, skin, and organs, have sensory neurons (when grouped, these are known as nerves). These neurons have receptors that detect stimuli, which leads to messages being sent directly to the CNS.

• Sensory neurons are responsible for sending messages to the brain from the body.
• Once our brains have gathered and processed this information, it sends messages back to these body parts via the spinal cord to effectors, which prompt movement or responses.
• Motor neurons are responsible for sending these messages back to the body.

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The spinal cord facilitates the transfer of messages to and from the brain to the peripheral nervous system. It is also involved in reflex actions e.g. startle response.

The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The peripheral nervous system consists of all the nerve cells which are not in the central nervous system. The spinal cord activates the peripheral nervous system, which is collectively responsible for gathering and sending information to different body parts through nerves.

This is how our body controls automatic functions such as heartbeat, blood flow, and stimulus responses which seem ‘automatic’ to us.

The peripheral nervous system can be split into two sections:

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