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 will be handling my body’s after-dinner activities. The organs involved in this activity are the following; along with their respective nerve supplies and the effects of the nervous system on their function:
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?
Driving peacefully on the road when a bicycle came out of nowhere that could have been hit by the car you’re driving is indeed a stressful and dangerous event. In this situation, the sympathetic nervous system or the fight-or-flight division of the body is activated because a dangerous event has happened. The fast-beating heart, goose bumps, and sweaty heads are responses to emergency situations as our body’s alertness is increased as well as metabolic activities to prepare our body to fight the life-threatening situation and get into safe mode. Hence, it is normal to experience those things when there is a dangerous or stressful event because it is a natural response of our body due to the activation of our sympathetic nervous system.
References:
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Guy-Evans, O. (2021, May 18). Parasympathetic Nervous System Functions | Simply Psychology. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/parasympathetic-nervous-system.html
Sympathetic Nervous System (PSNS): What It Is & Function. (n.d.). Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23266-parasympathetic-nervous-system-psns
Sports Medicine. (n.d.). Heart Rate | Sports Medicine | UC Davis Health. Copyright UC Regents. For More Information Regarding the University of California’s Copyright Terms, Visit http://www.ucop.edu/services/terms.html. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://health.ucdavis.edu/sports-medicine/resources/heart-rate
Tortora, & Derrickson. (2012). Chapter 14: The Brain and Cranial Nerves & Chapter 15: The Autonomic Nervous System. In Principles of anatomy and physiology (13th ed.). Pp 567 & 586.