BY: ALEXANDER PAPAZOV

THE NERVOUS
SYSTEM
WHAT IT DOES

• The nervous system (NS) controls everything in your body.

• It takes in information and process it so you can understand the world around you
• The NS also gives out electrical impulses to command your muscles to move.
THE THREE PRINCIPLE FUNCTIONS

• The three principal functions are

sensory input, integration, and motor
output. Sensory input is when your NS
takes in information about the
environment around you. Integration is
the process in which your brain decides
what to do about the sensory input.The
motor output is when your muscles
move as you brain instructed them to.
THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

• The central nervous system (CNS) is made

up of the brain and spinal cord. It gives
orders such as what to move, and is where
integration takes place.The peripheral
nervous system (PNS) is made up of all the
nerves in your body.This part of the NS
helps your CNS send signals to other parts
of your body, and sense the world around
you.The PNS is what takes in information
about the environment around you.
THE AFFERENT AND EFFERENT DIVISIONS

• There are two divisions in the PNS, the

sensory (or afferent) division and the
motor (or efferent) division.The sensory
division controls sensory input.That
division picks up stimuli from the outside
world. As for the motor division, it has
the role of commanding another
principle function, motor output.
THE MOTOR DIVISION’S TWO PARTS

• The somatic and autonomic divisions fall

under the motor division.The autonomic
part controls all of the involuntary
functions in your body.The somatic
division does the opposite, it helps you
control your voluntary functions.
STRESSING OUT AND CALMING DOWN

• It turns out the autonomic division, is

also split in two. The sympathetic and
parasympathetic divisions control stress.
The sympathetic division is what gets
you stressed before a test. The
parasympathetic division does the
opposite, it would calm you down.
GLIAL CELLS

• These cells protect neurons, provide support, provide insulation, and even help with
signal transmission in the NS.
ASTROCYTES

• Astrocytes are part of the four types of

glial cells in the CNS. They are attached
to capillaries and neurons.They get
materials for the neurons so they can
carry out their functions properly and
survive.
MICROGLIAL CELLS

• These cells are part of the immune

system along with the NS. Their purpose
is to protect neurons from diseases and
infections.
EPENDYMAL CELLS

• These cells line your organs and body

cavities.They create and hold
cerebrospinal fluid to protect your
organs and keep them from rubbing
against each other.
OLIGODENDROCYTES

• These CNS glial cells produce a myelin

sheath which wraps around the axon of
a neuron to act as an insulating barrier.
SATELLITE CELLS

• This is one of the two glial cells in the

PNS. Since the PNS has a unipolar
neuron type instead of a multipolar
neuron type (more on that later), the
cell body containing the nucleus is
sticking out.The satellite cells are here
to support the cell body. An additional
function they have is to get materials just
like the astrocytes do.
SCHWANN CELLS

• Also part of PNS duo of glial cells, these

cells are what create the myelin sheath,
an insulating barrier.
NEURONS…

• Have HUGE appetites, they use up twenty-five percent of the calories you eat everyday.
• Are irreplaceable, but they usually last your whole life time.
BASIC NEURON STRUCTURE
MULTIPOLAR
NEURONS
• The way you can tell which neuron
is which can be told by its structure,
and its function.
• This neuron is found in the CNS
(mostly), and makes up your spinal
chord and brain. It has multiple
dendrites sticking out of the cell
body, and one axon.
BIPOLAR NEURONS

• This type of neuron is extremely

rare and is only found in specific
places like the retina of your eye. It
has one axon, and a dendrite that
has the same shape of an axon as
well. It has a cell body that does not
stick out.
UNIPOLAR NEURONS

• These neurons are not common at

all compared to the multipolar
neurons, but common compared to
bipolar neurons.These are the
neurons that make up your PNS.
They have an axon, a dendrite and
their cell bodies stick out.
SENSORY NEURONS

• Afferent (sensory) neurons are mostly

unipolar, and make up the sensory
division of the PNS (slide 5).They take in
stimulus from the outside world and
send out a response to get to the brain
for integration.
MOTOR NEURONS

• Efferent (motor) neurons are mostly

multipolar, and make up the motor
division of the PNS (slide 5). After
integration, the brain sends out a
response, and the motor neurons do
whatever motor output the brain said to
do.
INTERNEURONS

• Association (inter-) neurons carry out

bath functions that motor and sensory
neurons do. They take in stimulus and
send a signal to the brain, but they also
do whatever the brain tells them to do.
BASIC ELECTRICITY

• Your body is overall neutral, but in some places charges are separated by membranes.
• Charges are separated to build up potential.
• There has to be an event to even out that gradient, because nature hates imbalance.
VOLTAGE

• Voltage is the amount potential

energy (PE).Voltage in the human
body is measured in millivolts (mv’s).
CURRENT

• Current is the flow from one point

to another. The formula for current
is voltage over resistance.
RESISTANCE

• Resistance is what is getting in the

way. Something with a high
resistance is an insulator.The
opposite is a conductor.
A RESTING NEURON

• The outside of a resting neuron is

positively charged due to positive
sodium ions.The inside is negatively
charged. Inside the membrane there are
positive potassium ions, but then there
are negatively charged proteins inside as
well, giving a neuron its negative charge.
THE SODIUM-POTASSIUM PUMP

• The sodium-potassium pump is

important because without it, electrical
events would not be possible.The
sodium-potassium pump pumps three
sodium ions out, and two potassium ions
in.This helps keep a resting neuron at
resting state (-70 mv).
VOLTAGE-GATED
CHANNELS
• These channels open and
close when there is a
difference in membrane
potential.The membrane
potential is how positive or
negatively charged it is inside
a neuron’s membrane.Voltage-
gated channels are the most
common out of the three
types of ion channels.
LIGAND-GATED
CHANNELS
• These channels open when a
neurotransmitter latches to
its receptor.
MECHANICALLY-
GATED CHANNELS
• This type of channel open by
physically stretching the
membrane.
GRADED POTENTIAL

• Once a neuron receives a stimulus from

a neuron, it goes into shock, but when
the outside stimulus is not strong
enough, it does not send a signal to the
next neuron.This is basically a false
alarm, so the neuron goes right back to
resting state.
ACTION
POTENTIAL
• This change in membrane
potential is enough to make
an electrical event to trigger
the next neuron. It has
multiple steps in the process.
THE STEPS TO AN ACTION POTENTIAL

1. Resting state
The neuron membrane potential is at -70 mv.
2. Depolarization
a.The mechanically-gated channels open, and
then the membrane potential gets to -55mv.
b. The voltage-gated channels open, and the
membrane potential reaches +40 mv.
3. Repolarization
The voltage gated channels close and the
sodium-potassium pumps start working
4. Hyperpolarization
For a brief moment, repolarization goes too
far, but then the sodium-potassium pumps
pump until the neuron is at -70 mv.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Refractory Period- When an action potential is being passed onto another neuron, the
neuron may not receive any stimulus.
• The gap between two myelin sheaths is called the node of ranvier.
SOURCES

• Thank you CrashCourse for the wonderful videos that taught me so much! Here are the
links to the videos!