Activity 221 The NeuronIntroductionYou Are Waiting
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Activity 2.2.1: The Neuron
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Introduction
You are waiting to cross the street at a busy intersection. All of a sudden, two cars collide right in front of you. Your hands instantaneously fly up to shield your face. You hear the horrible crunch of metal. You smell the burning rubber of tires and you open your eyes to see the skid marks on the road. Reaching for your cell phone, you dial 911. Your heart races as you run out in the street to see if you can be of any help. So much is happening at one time, you feel like your brain is on overload. !
Just how does your nervous system deal with so much information at one time? Did you realize that a big part of communication between and within human body systems is electrical in nature?
Without it, body processes would shut down, starting with your heartbeat! You should remember from PBS that your heart beats when an electrical signal moves through the atria and ventricles.
When a heart is failing and this electrical signal is weak or nonexistent, doctors can “shock” the heart back into rhythm with a blast of electricity.
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But the heart is not the only organ of the body that communicates through electrical signals. Cells and tissues throughout the body “talk” to one another electrically. A superhighway of nerves moves impulses around the body allowing us to process stimuli and make an appropriate response. Electrical signals travel in paths that take information to and from the brain and spinal cord. These signals allow the nervous system to react quickly while at the same time processing a great deal of sensory information.
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The nervous system interacts with all other systems in the body and reacts to thousands of different stimuli on a minute to minute basis. Specialized cells called neurons work together to respond to these stimuli, process the information and produce an appropriate response.
!
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In your brain alone, you have as many as 100 billion neurons. But, don’t brag. An octopus has on average 300
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Activity 2.2.1: The Neuron
!
Introduction
You are waiting to cross the street at a busy intersection. All of a sudden, two cars collide right in front of you. Your hands instantaneously fly up to shield your face. You hear the horrible crunch of metal. You smell the burning rubber of tires and you open your eyes to see the skid marks on the road. Reaching for your cell phone, you dial 911. Your heart races as you run out in the street to see if you can be of any help. So much is happening at one time, you feel like your brain is on overload. !
Just how does your nervous system deal with so much information at one time? Did you realize that a big part of communication between and within human body systems is electrical in nature?
Without it, body processes would shut down, starting with your heartbeat! You should remember from PBS that your heart beats when an electrical signal moves through the atria and ventricles.
When a heart is failing and this electrical signal is weak or nonexistent, doctors can “shock” the heart back into rhythm with a blast of electricity.
!
But the heart is not the only organ of the body that communicates through electrical signals. Cells and tissues throughout the body “talk” to one another electrically. A superhighway of nerves moves impulses around the body allowing us to process stimuli and make an appropriate response. Electrical signals travel in paths that take information to and from the brain and spinal cord. These signals allow the nervous system to react quickly while at the same time processing a great deal of sensory information.
!
The nervous system interacts with all other systems in the body and reacts to thousands of different stimuli on a minute to minute basis. Specialized cells called neurons work together to respond to these stimuli, process the information and produce an appropriate response.
!
!
In your brain alone, you have as many as 100 billion neurons. But, don’t brag. An octopus has on average 300