Human Nervous System: It's Structure and Functions

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The Human Nervous System: Its Structure and Functions Whether it is a smell of fresh baked pies, pain from falling over or enjoyment of watching a rugby game, all the sensory details that a human absorbs in life travel along the body’s own ‘information superhighway’ called the nervous system (Rogers, 2011). The nervous system of the human body is responsible for sending, receiving and processing nerve impulses; it controls the actions and sensations of all the parts of the human body as well as an individual’s thoughts, emotions and memories (Burton, Weston & Kowalski, 2009). The Human Nervous System consists of the Central Nervous System (CNS), which relates to the Brain and the Spinal Cord, and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), which relates to the functions of the body and how the body responds and acts to these functions (Burton, et. al., 2009). The brain acts as the ‘command centre’ by telling the body how to react based on all the information delivered to it through the nervous system (Rogers, 2011). According to Carter, Aldridge, Page and Parker (2009), the brain was regarded as unimportant for centuries until Greek philosopher, Aristotle, thought the brain was a radiator for cooling the blood. Descartes, a French scientist, concluded that the brain was a type of antenna by which spirit might commune with the blood. The only way to learn about the structure of a human brain was by removing it from the body after death. The living brain’s working knowledge could only be obtained by studying people with damaged brains (Carter, et. al., 2009). The importance of brain became apparent in the 20th century after the scientific and technological advances fuelled an emergence of brain-imaging techniques (Rogers, 2011). These imaging techniques enabled researchers to see both the brain activity and anatomy while the person was still alive (Carter, 2010).
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