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, responsible for rest-and-digest, automatically controls the processes of the body after eating. Organs involved are those in the GI tract, such as esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, and the accessory organs like gallbladder, pancreas and liver. The major nerve supply is the vagus nerve (CN X). The parasympathetic division increases the digestion rate, controls the pancreas to make and release insulin, which helps the body break down sugars into a profitable form for metabolism.
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?
- In this case, the sympathetic nervous system is at work which responds to dangerous or stressful situations. Her eyes sent a danger signal to the amygdala, the interpreter of images and sounds, then to the hypothalamus which activates the sympathetic nervous system by sending signals to the adrenal glands to pump the epinephrine. Through the circulation of epinephrine is the occurence of physiological changes such as faster heart rate, increased blood pressure, goose bumps and sweat, in response to the danger detected by the brain.
Source:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response