1. You have been to an ‘eat all you can’ buffet and have consumed large amounts of food. After returning home, you recline on the couch to watch television. Which division of the nervous system will be handling your body’s after-dinner activities? List several organs involved, the major nerve supply to each organ, and the effects of the nervous system on their functions.
The parasympathetic nervous system handles the body's after-dinner activities as this nervous system division takes care of the rest-and-digest activities of the body. It conserves body's energy as well as replenish it. Some organs involved are as follows. Parotid glands for salivation controlled by the glossopharyngeal (IX) nerve that provides mouth and throat sensory information. Another is the stomach controlled by the vagus (X) nerve that is responsible for digestion.
2. Your friend is driving home from work, listening to her favorite music, when suddenly a bicycle came out of nowhere. She manages to swerve avoiding hitting the bicycle. She continued to drive home but she noticed that her heart is beating fast, she had goose bumps, and her heads were sweaty. How would you explain these effects?
The autonomic nervous system is the one responsible for the response when she sees the bicycle. Resulted by the physical and emotional stress experienced after almost hitting the bicycle, there was fear involved. This fear stimulates the body’s nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system specifically. The activation of the sympathetic nervous system results in the body’s physiological response which is commonly known as the fight or flight response. As the fear stimulates that particular nervous system, the effects can include the increase of heart rate which led to her heart beating fast after the said incident. Along with the flight or fight responses are goosebumps where hair follicle stands due to shock and sweaty palms due to nervousness.
References
Tortora, G. J., & Derrickson, B. H. (2018). Principles of anatomy and physiology. John Wiley & Sons.