NERVOUS SYSTEM & BEHAVIOUR

Nervous System & Behaviour

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Thesis Statement1

Discussion1

The Endocrine System3

Motor Behavior: Reflexes, Movements and Actions7

Reflexes7

Conclusion10

Nervous System & Behaviour

Introduction

The nervous system regulates the activities of all organs and systems, causing their functional unity, and provides liaison body as a whole with the external environment. It has two important tasks: the overall functioning of our body and the relationship with the outside world. It consists of a set of cells of two types: neurons (receive and send information to the body) and glial cells (Albus, 1971).

Thesis Statement

The relationship between the properties of the human nervous system and the peculiarities of his behavior and his psychological make-up is depending on the nervous system.

Discussion

The human nervous system contains a central and a peripheral division. The central nervous system (CNS) contains the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral division contains cranial and spinal nerves innervating peripheral targets including sensory receptors, muscles, or visceral organs. Those nerves carrying information from and to the viscera and involving in control of their activity form the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The activity of the ANS has been implicated in motivational and emotional functions, respectively. The spinal cord processes information from sensory receptors, delivers motor orders to the muscles, and serves as a relay between the brain and the periphery (Bullock, 1993). The brain contains a central core known as the brain stem including the medulla, pons, midbrain, thalamus, and hypothalamus. Around the brain stem are the basal ganglia and limbic system. All these structures are largely covered with the cerebral cortex, which is most developed in the human being; it can be further divided into the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes in each hemisphere. While the two sides of the central nervous system are grossly symmetrical, functional and structural asymmetries are demonstrated in the cerebral cortex and other brain loci. Cells in the cerebral cortex group into layers while those in other structures group into aggregations called nuclei. Different subdivisions are involved in different functions (Bullock, 1993).

Sensory, motor, and mental functions are represented at many levels of the nervous system. Different types of information processing may be undertaken by neural circuits of distinct levels. One type of operation is to combine information from both sides of the body to derive a third dimension of perception that is not naturally reflected in the surface of the receptor organ. An example is localizing auditory or visual stimuli in the environment. Sound localization depends on the difference in intensity, time of arrival, or phase of sound waves as they impinge the two eardrums. Stereopsis (visual depth perception) depends on the fact that the image of a stimulus farther or nearer than the fixation point falls on non-corresponding positions of the two retinas (retinal disparity).

In general, the nervous system appears to observe a division of labor. Various properties involved in a behavioral function rely on different groups of neurons within each ...