Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Nervous System

jittery social servants?
worried computer processor?
uncertain cladistics?
A band?

No! It's the system of nerves, ganglia, axa, myelinated sheaths, gray and white matter that lets your body communicate with itself! It does the quick control and leaves the slow-acting, long-lasting control to hormones. I read through the nervous system section of the anatomy book and so far it seems that I have a shot at remembering all the details if only I can get the groupings straight:
  • central nervous system versus peripheral nervous system
  • Somatic (roughly conscious control) nervous system vs. Autonomic nervous system
  • Sympathetic nervous system vs. parasympathetic nervous system
  • preganglionic nerves vs. postganglionic nerves...etc.
The structure of the nervous system is like a road that keeps forking. My goal with pre-studying is simply to expose myself to the vocabulary and broad concepts. I'm trying to cover ground on my first pass, not memorize.

1 comment:

Cati Brown Johnson said...

I remember when I learned about the parasympathetic nervous system. It was so exciting. Kathryn was telling me about learning about it in her massage therapy school. It's so cool that you can activate a huge chain of relaxing events just by breathing a little deeper. And while I was checking to make sure I was getting the parasympathetic nervous system right, I saw info about another system, the enteric nervous system. http://whyfiles.org/026fear/physio1.html...
I liked their title : Two brains are better than one, especially if you're hungry.