QUESTION:
- Your alarm clock woke you up early in the morning as a signal that you need to prepare for class. You stretched, yawned, and began to salivate as you smell the brewing coffee. Your stomach also begins to rumble. List the divisions of the nervous system that are involved in each of these responses.
ANSWER:
DIVISIONS OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM involved in these responses:
a. Somatic Nervous System
- this division is responsible for voluntary, conscious controls of skeletal muscles
- it includes: Sensory Neurons conveying information from somatic receptors. These include responses HEARING the ALARM CLOCK and SMELLING the BREWING COFFEE.
- Motor Neurons conducting impulses from the control center to skeletal muscles only. In this example, STRETCHING and YAWNING are example responses done by these neurons.
b. Autonomic Nervous System
- It is a division of the nervous system where actions are involuntary, or where unconscious control of responses takes place. The SALIVATING action is a manifestation of the motor neurons, particularly, of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (responsible for Rest-and-Digest responses).
c. Enteric Nervous System
- are extensive networks of neurons particularly located at the walls of the organs of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. So for this example, the RUMBLING of STOMACH shows actions of enteric motor neurons.
References:
- Tortora, G. J. & Derrickson, B. (2017). Chapter 12 Nervous Tissue: Overview of the Nervous System. In Principles of anatomy and physiology (15th ed., pp. 404–405). essay, Wiley Custom Learning Solutions.