NURS 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Catecholamine, Salivary Gland, Ureter
Document Summary
The human nervous system consists of two branches. Contains all neurons outside the brain and spinal cord. Efferent division carries signals away from the brain and spinal cord to periphery. Afferent division carries impulses from periphery to brain and spinal cord. Efferent division is further divided into autonomic and somatic nervous systems. Somatic: nerves provide voluntary control over skeletal muscle. Involuntary system responsible for control of smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, exocrine glands. Functions of the autonomic nervous system are monitored by the sympathetic (sns) and parasympathetic (psns) nervous systems. Sns and psns work together to maintain homeostasis via their system of checks and balances. Synapse or synaptic cleft: structure at the end of a nerve fiber that includes the actual physical space between nerve endings. It must be bridged for impulses to reach the next nerve fiber. Post-synaptic neuron: nerve on the other side of the synapse. Ganglion: pre and post synaptic connections of nerve tissue occurring outside the cns.
