PSYC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Homeostasis, Sympathetic Nervous System, Caffeine
Document Summary
Focuses on physical and chemical changes that influence behaviour and mental processes. All behaviour and mental processes are based on biological processes. (cid:862)(cid:396)elatio(cid:374)ship (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) (cid:271)(cid:396)ai(cid:374) a(cid:374)d (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iou(cid:396)(cid:863) The nervous system is a combination of billions of cells that communicate with each other and allows us to gain information about the external world, to process this information and to respond appropriately eg hot pizza oven example. The nervous system has three main functions: receive information (input) integrate that information with past experiences (processing: guide actions (output) Primary function is communication within the ns (this is usually highly efficient (rapidly receive signals from stimuli in the external environment, rapidly process this information, rapidly send signals to the muscles or glands to perform an action) Three types: sensory (afferent) neurons messages from senses brain or spinal cord (cns, motor (efferent) neurons message from cns muscles or glands. Ns is made up of two major types of cells: neurons and glial cells.
