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.
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The division of the nervous system that will be handling my body’s after-dinner activities is the parasympathetic nervous system since the body is relaxed and is now resting. Our stomach, intestine, and gallbladder are some of the organs involved in this. All of these organs are supplied by the vagus nerve. While the effects of the nervous system on their respective functions are as follows:
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Stomach & Intestines: secretes digestive enzymes that help break down food
- Gallbladder: stores and releases bile to help in digestion
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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 goosebumps, and her heads were sweaty. How would you explain these effects?
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These effects are caused by the sympathetic nervous system. Our sympathetic nervous system is usually responsible for responding to dangerous or stressful situations and the incident that my friend experienced triggered the sympathetic nervous system to respond and it reacted by heart rate increasing, goosebumps, and sweaty hands. Our sympathetic nervous system is usually responsible for triggering a “fight or flight” response which either prepares our body to fight or flee from something.