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.
Division to handle the after-dinner activities: The Parasympathetic Nervous System
Organs involved, the major nerve supplies, and the effects on their functions:
Salivary glands | Vagus nerve (X) and Glossopharyngeal nerve (IX)
- Regulation of the production of salivary secretion
Heart | Vagus nerve (X)
- Heart rate regulation
Stomach and intestines | Vagus nerve (X) |
- Secretion of stomach acid (Stomach) and increased motility to digest the food
Pancreas | Vagus nerve (X)
- Secretion of insulin to control the sugar levels in the body
Liver | Vagus nerve (X)
- Production of bile to help turn fat into energy that can be used in the body
Gall bladder | Vagus nerve (X)
- Storage of bile and modulating the act of releasing bile into the small intestine to help in breaking down and absorbing fat from food
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
Upon seeing the bicycle appearing out of nowhere, my friend immediately went into a state of fight-or-flight out of sheer stress. During this automatic bodily response, the sympathetic nervous system becomes activated due to the surge of hormones in the body, as both the adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticotropin-releasing hormone start a chain that then triggers the pituitary and adrenal glands to push out more hormones such as the likes of adrenaline, endorphins, and cortisol. Adrenaline and endorphins aid the reallocation of the body’s resources for utmost focus and readiness in a situation that demands an instant decision.
During the fight-or-flight response, the chain of hormonal reactions increases heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. This increase in bodily activity can last for up to 20 to 60 minutes after encountering the threat, as the body takes time to recover and return the allocation of resources to its original disposition. My friend is still feeling the elevated effects as she drives home since her body hasn't fully reverted to its normal state.