While the SNS directs the movements of the skeletal muscles, the ANS regulates involuntary processes such as the heart beating, breathing, blood pressure, and blood sugar level. When compared to other animals’ brains, the human brain is a more complex central nervous system. The reason for this is due to the proficiency of the human brain to continuously develop both in the structure and function of numerous cells in it as a responsive mechanism towards new incoming information, experiences, and even shock, which is also known as brain plasticity. (Sanders
There is part of the brain that is the reticular formation, which is also referred as the reticular activity system. It is referred to the reticular activity system because it plays a major role in the arousal stage. “Arousal is not the only function that the reticular formation is involved in; sleep attention, mobility, and the maintenance of muscle, as well as other cardiac, circulatory, respiratory reflexes”. Metencephalon The metencephalon is much like the myelencephalo. This is the part of the brain where the ascending and descending tracts are housed.
It has widespread connections with the rest of the forebrain and the midbrain. Partly through nerves and partly through hypothalamic hormones, the hypothalamus conveys messages to the pituitary gland, altering its release of hormones (Kalat, 2003). According to “American Accreditation Health Commission,” The hypothalamus is responsible for certain metabolic processes and other activities of the autonomic nervous system. It synthesizes and secretes certain neurohormones, often called hypothalamic-releasing hormones, and these in turn stimulate or inhibit the secretion of pituitary hormones. The hypothalamus controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue, sleep, and circadian cycle.
Some common disorders affecting the central nervous system. These neurological disorders include multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and stroke, and can affect memory and ability to perform daily activities. The CNS is made up of the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord. The brain is the main data center of the body and consists of the cerebrum which regulates higher level functioning such as thought, and the cerebellum which maintains coordination. The central nervous system is protected in many ways.
A conclusion will then be drawn based on the discussion. The brain is an essential organ of the body. It is the control center for all the body’s activities, such as walking, talking, swallowing, breathing taste, smell and heart beat. The brain also controls our thinking functions, our intellectual activities as well as our emotions. Hemispheric specialization refers to the dominance of one hemisphere of the brain in specific functions, such as language, emotions, motor control and so on ( Feldman, 2009).
These hemispheres have been responsible for the development of human language, abstract thought, imagination, and consciousness. The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning abilities. The neocortex is also what has enabled human cultures to develop. These three parts of the brain do not operate independently of one another. They have established
A synaptic space is a tiny gap between neurons and dendrites. When the neuron fires, it travels out the axon terminal into a terminal button using chemicals called neurotransmitters. These terminals consist of small sacs that are called synaptic vesicles. There are also neurons that are called the messengers that are from sense organs and they carry messages to your spinal cord or your brain. These neurons
Brain Trauma The cerebellum plays an important role in motor output and sensory perception. It integrates pathways in the brain that send information to muscles and provides feedback of the position of the body in space. The cerebellum plays a role in muscle tension important for maintaining posture and fine finger movement such as typing. The cerebellum also plays a role in cognitive function including attention, processing of language and music and other temporal sensory stimuli. It also regulates fear and pleasure responses.
Brain plasticity (neural plasticity) is a term that describes how the brain is affected by its outside environment and its ability to change based on experience. Changes in the brain can be positive, such as when you learn something new, or negative, such as when damage occurs to the brain through an injury. Brain plasticity can vary and be affected by age, but scientific studies have shown that neural plasticity actually takes place over an entire life span and not just in infancy like previously believed. The brain is always creating new neural pathways and altering old ones so that that it can function the most efficiently. The brain is also able to move things structurally for accommodation as a result of learning, resulting in a larger weight of the brain, and it can also move functions from a damaged portion of the brain to an undamaged portion of the brain to compensate for the injury, which may also result in a smaller weight of the brain.
They are created by an abnormal and uncontrolled cell division, usually in the brain itself, but also in lymphatic tissue, in blood vessels, in the cranial nerves, in the brain envelopes (meninges), skull, pituitary gland, or pineal gland. Within the brain itself, the involved cells may be neurons or glial cells (which include astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells, and myelin-producingSchwann cells). Brain tumors may also spread from cancers primarily located in other organs (metastatic tumors). Any brain tumor is inherently serious and life-threatening because of its invasive and infiltrative character in the limited space of the intracranial cavity. However, brain tumors (even malignant ones) are not invariably fatal, especially lipomas which are inherently benign.