Activity 3
Bien Troy B. Torres
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 is the one responsible for handling the body's after-dinner activities.
Organs involved: salivary glands, heart, liver, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, pancreas, lungs, and gall bladder
Major nerve supply: Vagus Nerve (X) and Facial Nerve (VII)
Effects of nervous system on their functions:
- Salivary glands - increased saliva production.
- Heart - lowers heart rate.
- Liver - increased bile secretion.
- Stomach - produces stomach acid to break down food.
- Small intestine - it digests fasts & increases motility and gastric secretions.
- Large intestine - releases the food to the rectum for waste disposal (Peristalsis).
- Pancreas - secretes enzymes.
- Lungs - regulates the respiration.
- Gall bladder - increases contraction.
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 friend activated a response from their Sympathetic Nervous System with triggered the fight-or-flight response in their body. It increases heart rate, increased body temperature, increased awareness of one's surroundings, and etc. The Sympathetic Nervous System does this by sending signals thru the autonomic nerves to the adrenal glands that responds by pumping epinephrine (or "adrenaline") into the bloodstream causing this phenomenon.