Coordination and Response

Mammalian Nervous System

 The mammalian nervous system consists of two parts:

o Central Nervous System (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord, which are the

areas of coordination.

o Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) comprises nerves and neurones, which

coordinate and regulate body functions.

 Electrical impulses travel through the neurones.

 The nervous system helps with the coordination and regulation of body functions.

Types of Neurones
Nerve Impulse: an electrical signal that passes along the nerve cells

called neurones

Motor Neurone
Sensory Neurone

Relay Neurone
 Simple Reflex Arc
Reflex Action: automatically and rapidly integrates and coordinates the stimuli

with the responses of effectors (muscles and glands).

 E.g. quickly removing your hand from the hot metal surface

 They involve three neurones: a sensory neurone, a relay neurone and a motor

neurone.

 The gap between neurones is called a synapse.

 How the simple reflex arc works:

o A stimulus affects a receptor (cell or organ that converts a stimulus into an

electrical impulse)

o A sensory neurone carries impulses from the receptor to the CNS

o Connector/relay neurone carries impulse slowly (because it has no myelin sheath)

across the spinal cord

o The motor neurone carries impulses from the CNS to the effector

o The effector (either a muscle or a gland) carries out the response

 Synapse
Synapse: a junction between two neurones, consisting of a gap across which

impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter

 The synapses ensure that impulses travel in one direction only.

 Synaptic cleft: the small gap between each pair of neurones

 Inside the neurone’s axon, there are 100s of tiny vacuoles (vesicles, each

containing a chemical called neurotransmitter)

 When an impulse arrives, the vesicles move to the cell membrane and empty their

content into the synaptic cleft.

 The neurotransmitter quickly diffuses across the tiny gap and attaches to receptor

molecules in the cell membrane of the relay neurone.

 This can happen because the neurotransmitter molecules' shape complements the

receptor molecule's shape.

Sense Organs
Sense Organ: groups of receptor cells responding to specific stimuli: light, sound,

touch, temperature and chemicals.

 Cornea: refracts light

 Iris: controls how much light enters the pupil

 Lens: focuses light onto the retina

 Retina: contains light receptors, some sensitive to light of different colours (Rods

and cones)

 Optic nerves: carry impulses to the brain

Pupil Reflex

 Adjusting for high and low light intensity

 An involuntary response

Low Light Intensity High Light Intensity

Radial muscles (straight lines) contract and Circular muscles (circular lines)
become shorter to pull the pupil (black dot), contract and become shorter to
making it wider to let more light enter to reduce pupil size and protect the
form a clear image on the retina retina from bleaching.

Accommodation
Accommodation: Adjusting for near and distant objects.

 The way the lens brings about fine focusing is called accommodation

 The lens is elastic, and its shape can be changed when the suspensory

ligaments attached to it become tight or loose

 The contraction or relaxation of the ciliary muscles brings about the changes
 Near Object Distant Object

Ciliary muscles contract Ciliary muscles relax

Suspensory Ligaments Suspensory Ligaments

slack tighten

The lens becomes short The lens becomes long and

and fat thin
Exemplar Past Year Question

Explain why a person cannot focus on distant objects if the suspensory

ligaments become permanently overstretched. (0610/42/F/M/23)

1. ciliary muscles relax

2. suspensory ligaments can no longer become tight

3. the lens is not stretched/remains wide

4. the angle of refraction remains unchanged

Rods and Cones

 Rods Cones

Provide low detail, black & white images,

Provide detailed, coloured images;
suitable for seeing in low-intensity light (at
they work in high light intensity.
night).

Packed most tightly around the edge of Most tightly packed at the retina's
the retina, so you can see things most centre, objects are seen most clearly
clearly when not looking directly at them. when directly looking at them.
 Fovea:

o Part of the retina where the receptor cells are pushed most closely together

o Where light is focused when you look straight at an object

 Distribution of Rods and Cones

o More rod cells than cone cells

o A number of cone cells peaked in the middle, showing the location of the fovea. No

rod cells are present in the peak.

o No rod and cone cells at the blind spot, as the optic nerve is located there. \n

Hormones
 Hormones: A chemical substance produced by a gland and carried by the blood,

altering the activity of one or more specific target organs.

Endocrine Glands

 adrenal glands and adrenaline

 pancreas and insulin

 testes and testosterone

 ovaries and oestrogen

Adrenaline

 A hormone secreted by the adrenal gland.

 It increases pulse rate, heart rate and pupil diameter.

 Increases blood glucose concentration for respiration.

 Adrenaline is secreted, for example, bungee jumping or riding a rollercoaster.

Gland Hormone Function

Adrenal
Adrenaline Prepares the body for vigorous action
gland

Reduces the concentration of glucose in the

Pancreas Insulin
blood

Testostero Causes the development of male sexual

Testes
ne characteristics

Causes the development of female sexual

Ovary Oestrogen
characteristics

Pancreas Glucagon Increases concentration of glucose in the blood

Nervous and Hormonal Control

 Comparison Nervous system Endocrine system

Speed of action Very rapid Can be slow

Electrical impulses Chemical messengers (hormones)

Nature of message
travelling along nerves travelling in the bloodstream

Duration of
Usually within seconds It may take years (puberty)
response

Localized response Widespread response (in many

Area of response
(only one area usually) organs)

Example of Reflexes such as Development of the reproductive

process-controlled blinking system

Homeostasis
Homeostasis: The maintenance of a constant internal environment.

 Insulin decreases blood glucose concentration.

 The concept of homeostatic control by negative feedback with reference to a set

point

Negative Feedback

Negative Feedback: controls the production of hormones and regulates their own

production

 A negative feedback control is when the change in hormone level acts as a signal to

cancel out that change, so when the blood hormone level is low, hormone

production is stimulated; when it is high, it is inhibited.

Glucoregulation
 Blood glucose levels are monitored and controlled by the pancreas
 The pancreas produces and releases different hormones depending on the blood

glucose level

 Insulin is released when blood glucose levels are high – the liver stores excess

glucose as glycogen

 Glucagon is released when blood glucose levels are low – the liver converts stored

glycogen into glucose and releases it into the blood

 When the control of blood glucose does not work, a person is said to have diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes: caused by the death of the cells that secrete insulin.

 Symptoms: hyperglycaemia (feeling unwell, dry mouth, blurred vision, and feel

thirsty) or hypoglycaemia (tired, showing confusion and irrational behaviour)

 Treatment: eating little and often and avoiding large amounts of carbohydrates,

injecting insulin to reduce blood glucose concentration

Thermoregulation

Constant body temperature is maintained by:

 Insulation: provided by fatty tissue retains heat. Hairs become erect to trap warm

air by contracting erector muscles and vice versa.

 Vasodilation: when it is hot, arterioles, which supply blood to the skin-surface

capillaries, dilate (become wider) to allow more blood near the skin surface to

increase heat loss (face redder)

 Vasoconstriction: when it is cold, arterioles, which supply blood to the skin-surface

capillaries, constrict (become smaller) to allow less blood near the skin surface to

decrease heat loss

 Sweating: the water evaporates, giving a cooling effect

 Skin receptors: sense heat, and sensory neurons send impulses to the

hypothalamus

 Shivering: muscular activity generates heat

 Thermoregulatory Centre: the hypothalamus controls corrective mechanisms

(e.g. sweating and shivering).

Tropic Responses
 Auxin:

o Plant hormones or growth substances

o Controls tropisms

o It is produced by cells at the tip of the roots and shoots of plants

Gravitropism: a response in which a plant grows towards (positive) or away

(negative) from gravity.

 Auxins’ role in gravitropism:

o Made in the shoot tip

o Then, it diffuses through the plant from the shoot tip

o Auxin is unequally distributed in response to light and gravity

o Auxin stimulates cell elongation

Phototropism: a response in which a plant grows towards (positive) or away

(negative) from the direction light is coming.

 Auxins’ role in phototropism:

o If the sun shines on the right side of a plant’s shoot, auxins accumulate on the dark

opposite left side.

o Auxins accumulating makes cells on the left side grow faster than cells on the right.

o When the left side of the shoot starts growing faster than the right side, the shoot

will start to bend to the right side towards sunlight.