PSYC 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Central Nervous System, Parasympathetic Nervous System, Peripheral Nervous System
Document Summary
Nervous system has two parts: central nervous system (cns) Connects cns to all other parts of the body. Brain sends messages to muscles, glands, and body parts. Pns comprises the nerves connecting the central nervous system to the rest of the body. It is divided into two parts: somatic nervous system (sns, autonomic nervous system (ans) Begins at site where spinal cord enlarges as it enters skull. Heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, coughing, swallowing: reticular formation (ras) (reticular activating system) Screens messages entering the brain: pons. Relay station for information flowing into and out of higher brain centers. Regulates hunger, thirst, sexual behaviour, emotional behaviours. Amygdala/ae> means almond in greek since these structures look like almonds in brain scans. Application: through brain scans, it has been found that someone with enlarged amygdale tends to have more difficulties with regulating fear and anxiety.
