Page 1 - LN-NEURAL CONTROL & COORDINATION

The human body has several organs. These organs cannot perform their

functions independently. In order to maintain homeostasis for the normal
physiology of the human body, functions of these organs/organ systems in our
body must be coordinated, so that they can work in proper manner.

Topic 1 Nervous System : An Overview

Coordination is the process through which two or more organs interact and
complement the functions of one another. On the other hand, integration is a
process, which makes two or more organs to work as a functional unit in
harmony.

For instance, when we do exercise, we observe significant increase in the rate
of respiration, heart beat, blood flow, sweating, etc., to meet enhanced need
of nutrients and energy for increased activities of lungs, heart, muscles and
many other body organs, when we stop exercising, we witness that the
increased activities of lungs, heart, nerves, kidneys, muscles, etc., gradually
return to normal. Thus, during exercise, functions of various organs of the body
are coordinated and integrated.
In higher animals (including human), two types of systems have been
developed for the control, coordination and integration, i.e., nervous system

and endocrine system. The nervous system provides an organised network of
point to point connections for quick neural coordination. The endocrine system
provides chemical integration through hormones.
Neural System
The neural system is the control system of the body which consists of highly
specialized cells called neurons. The sensory neurons detect and receive

information from different sense organs (receptors) in the form of stimuli and
transmit the stimuli to the Central Neural System (CNS) through sensory nerve
fibers. In CNS the processing of information is done and a conclusion is drawn.
The conclusion is sent to different organs (effectors) through motor nerves.
These effectors then show the response accordingly.
The neural or nervous system is present in most of the multicellular animals.
Its complexity increases from lower to higher animals.
Invertebrates have relatively simpler nervous system than the vertebrates.

Human Neural System
The whole nervous system of human being is derived from embryonic
ectoderm.
The human neural system is divided into two parts
(i) the Central Neural System (CNS)
(ii) the Peripheral Neural System (PNS)