Control and Coordination

The Senses

Light rays, sound waves, heat, chemicals or pressure in your environment stimulate your sense organs

Five senses:
1.Vision - Light stimulates rods (dim light) and cones (colors) and sends impulse to brain. Sometimes you can confuse the brain with illusions like these.

2. Hearing Parts of the Ear and how we hear a. Outer ear - gathers sound waves b. Middle ear eardrum vibrates and stimulates (hammer, anvil, stirrup) c. Inner ear fluids in the cochlea vibrate and send impulse to brain

3-4. Smell and Taste work closely together

Molecules in air stimulate nerve cells - olfactory cells in nasal passages and taste buds on tongue

5. Touch - found in organs and skin and pick up changes in pressure, pain, and temperature

Control and Coordination

The Nervous System

Nervous system
- receives and responds to information about what happens inside and outside of body - Stimulus - any change that brings about a response (reaction) - maintains homeostasis

Neuron cell that carries information (nerve impulse) through the body Has three parts: - Cell body (C) contains nucleus - Dendrites (B) carries impulse toward cell body - Axon (A) carries impulse away from cell body

Three types of neurons: - Sensory neuron receives information from senses - Interneuron carries impulse from sensory neuron to motor neuron - Motor neuron sends impulse to muscle for action

How impulses travel: - Nerve cells do not touch - Synapse - a space between nerve cells - When an impulse reaches the end of an axon, a chemical is released that moves across the synapse to the dendrite of the next neuron

Central nervous system (CNS) - made up of brain and spinal cord

- The brain is the control center of the body

Brain: 1. Cerebrum - interprets impulses from senses, processes thoughts, stores memories, and controls movement

2. Cerebellum coordination and balance

3. Brain stem - controls involuntary muscles (ex. heartbeat, breathing, and blood pressure)

Spinal cord - links brain with peripheral nervous system. Controls reflexes. Protected by vertebrae.

Peripheral nervous system (PNS) nerves branch from CNS (brain/spinal cord) to body - Somatic N.S: voluntary actions

- Autonomic N.S: involuntary actions (reflexes)

Drugs like alcohol and caffeine affect your nervous system Alcohol slows the activities of the central nervous system Caffeine speeds up the activity of the central nervous system

Olny srmat poelpe can I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the huamn mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinervtisy, is it deosnt mttaer in what order the ltteers in a word are, the only iprmoatnt thing is that the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the haumn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!! 1. Why is it that the human brain is able to read the above passage? 2. What do you think the above passage says about the importance of spelling words correctly for human understanding? 3. Do you think your language arts teachers would be swayed into believing that spelling is unnecessary in their class? Why or why not?

Title: Reaction Time Purpose: To determine reaction time by measuring how long you take to catch a falling ruler. Procedure: During two separate tests, you will catch a falling ruler released by your classmate using your thumb and forefinger. In one test, you will focus on catching the ruler. In the other, you will be distracted with doing multiplication in your head while trying to catch the ruler. Hypothesis: Will your reaction time be faster during normal conditions or distracted conditions? Why? ___________ _____________________________

Conclusions: 1. What is meant by reaction time? 2. What is your average reaction time in seconds under normal conditions (no distraction)? Under distracted conditions? 3. Under which condition (undistracted or distracted) was your average reaction time shorter? Why do you think this happened? 4. Does any student have a reaction time of zero? Why might this be an unusual thing? 5. What is the stimulus in this experiment? What is the response?