How Important is your Central Nervous System?

The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system that functions to coordinate the activity of all parts of the bodies of multi cellular organisms. In vertebrates, the central nervous system is enclosed in the meninges. It contains the majority of the nervous system and consists of the brain and the spinal cord. Together with the peripheral nervous system it has a fundamental role in the control of behavior. The CNS is contained within the dorsal cavity, with the brain in the cranial cavity and the spinal cord in the spinal cavity. The brain is protected by the skull, while the spinal cord is protected by the vertebrae.
Since the strong theoretical influence of cybernetics in the fifties, the central nervous system is conceived as a system devoted to information processing, where an appropriate motor output is computed as a response to a sensory input. Yet, many threads of research suggest that motor activity exists well before the maturation of the sensory systems, and that then the senses only influence behavior without dictating it.

Source: Wikipedia.

As you begin to absorb this information you will notice that you begin to understand the importance of the central nervous system and the partnership it has with our behaviors.

Imagine if I drilled a hole in your head with my Black & Decker, (with your permission of course) and then put a piece of copper wire in and wiggled it about, I could give your brain a little electric shock; not enough to kill you of course, but enough to make something happen.

So for instance if I was to place this copper wire in the area of your brain that determines taste then you might taste something even though there was nothing in your mouth. We know exactly where to put the wires to make different things happen. So an electric shock in another area might make you wiggle your toes. That explains why you “see stars” when you bang your head as this  affects the visual centre which is at the back of your brain. There are areas of the brain which deal with speech, hearing, smell, sight, movements, salivating, and so on.

The central nervous system provides the ability to perceive, understand and react to environmental events. That is why the nervous system is so extremely important for human behavior.
It exchanges millions of signals corresponding with feeling, thoughts and actions.

A simple example of how important the central nervous system is:

Imagine you are meeting up with a friend;

First, the visual information of your eyes is sent to your brain by nervous cells.

There the information is interpreted and translated into a signal of response and fundamentally we take action.

Finally the brain sends a command to your voice or to another action system like muscles or glands. For example, you may start walking towards them or acknowledge them verbally or with a wave or another gesture.

Your central nervous system enables this rapid recognition and response.

In other posts we will explore what happens when the central nervous system doesn’t work as well as it should and fundamentally malfunctions.

Share your thoughts with us… leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Dawn Pugh Psychotherapist