HUMAN BODY SYSTEMS:

CONTROL AND COORDINATION

The Nervous System
Your Brain and Nervous System
The brain controls ALL the
functions of your body. The
nervous system relays
messages back and forth
from the brain to different
parts of the body. It does
this via the spinal cord,
which runs from the brain
down through the back and
contains threadlike nerves
that branch out to every
organ and body part.
The Brain and Nervous System
Each day your body
responds to changes in
its environment. Any
internal or external
change that brings
about a response is
called a stimulus.
Your nervous system
helps your body
maintain steady internal
conditions. This is called
homeostasis.

When a message comes into the brain from
anywhere in the body, the brain tells the body
how to react. For example, if you accidentally
touch a hot stove, the nerves in your skin
shoot a message of pain to your brain. The
brain then sends a message back telling the
muscles in your hand to pull away.
Divisions of the Nervous System
Central Nervous System
The human brain weighs about 3
pounds. Its many folds and
grooves provide it with the
additional surface area necessary
for storing all of the body's
important information.
The spinal cord is about 18 inches
long and inch thick. It extends
from the lower part of the brain
down through spine.
Both the brain and the spinal cord
are protected by bone: the brain
by the bones of the skull, and the
spinal cord by the set of ring-
shaped bones called vertebrae
that make up the spine.

Peripheral Nervous System
Along the length of the spinal
cord, nerves branch out to the
entire body.

Bill Nye the Science Guy:
The Brain
The Brain
The brain is divided into 3 major parts:
the brain stem, the cerebellum, and the
cerebrum.
The cerebrum contains the
information that essentially makes us
who we are: our intelligence, memory,
personality, emotion, speech, and
ability to feel and move.
The cerebellum is responsible for
balance, movement, and
coordination.
The brain stem takes in, sends out,
and coordinates all of the brain's
messages and controls many of the
body's automatic functions, like
breathing, heart rate, blood pressure,
swallowing, digestion, and blinking.


Weird FactA living brain is so soft that you could cut it with a butter knife.
How the Nervous System Works
The basic functioning of the nervous system
depends a lot on tiny cells called neurons.
The brain has billions of them, and they have
many specialized jobs. For example, sensory
neurons take information from the eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, and skin to the brain. Motor
neurons carry messages away from the brain and
back to the rest of the body.
All neurons relay information to each other
through a complex electrochemical process,
making connections that affect the way we think,
learn, move, and behave.
When you learn things, messages travel from one
neuron to another, over and over. Then the brain
creates connections (or pathways) between the
neurons, so things become easier and you can do
them better and better.
KWL Chart QuestionsHow many
nerves are in the body?

The peripheral nervous system is made up of 12
pairs of nerves from your brain (cranial nerves) and
31 pairs from your spinal cord (spinal nerves.)
KWL Chart Questions
What is a reflex?
A reflex is an involuntary,
automatic response to a
stimulus.
You cant control reflexes
because they occur before you
know what has happened.
Reflexes allow the body to
respond without having to think
about what action to take.
Reflex responses are controlled
in your spinal cord, not in your
brain.
Your brain acts after the reflex
to help you figure out what to
do to make the pain stop.