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By Ben & Josh
• Your spine consists of 33 vertebrae:
• 7 cervical vertebrae – neck (C1 to C7)
• 12 thoracic vertebrae (T1 to T12)
• 5 lumbar vertebrae – lower back (L1 to L5)
• 5 sacral vertebrae (S1 to S5)
• 4 fused vertebrae that form the coccyx
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• The vertebrae are attached and held together by ligaments on both sides of the
spine. The Vertebrae are separated from each other by a disk made of
cartilaginous material. When we move, these disks absorb and reduce the
pressure between the vertebrae.
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• The spine may be compared to a flexible tube. The holes in the center of each
vertebrae form the spinal canal. Through the interior passes a ‘cord’ of nervous
tissue called the ‘spinal cord’. The spine’s principal function is to protect the spinal
cord.
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The spinal cord which is made of nerve cells and nerve
fibers, resembles a cable about the size of your little
finger.
Approximately 21 inches (52.5cm) in length, it begins at
the base of your brain and passes through the interior of
each of your cervical and thoracic vertebrae. It ends at the
upper level of your lumbar vertebrae (the superior border
of L2), where it branches into a collection on nerves that
extend down to the region of the coccyx.
Simply put, the spinal cord works like a two-way telephone
line. Via this communication pathway, the brain sends and
receives messages to and from different parts of your
body. This is how it can ensure the proper functioning of the
vital organs as well as muscle movement. Commands from
your brain and sensations from
• Making sense of the brain's complexity isn't easy. What we do
know is that it's the organ that makes us human, giving people
the capacity for art, language, judgments, and rational thought.
It's also responsible for each individual's personality, memories,
movements, and how we sense the world.
• All this comes from a jellylike mass of fat and protein weighing
about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms). It is, nevertheless, one of the
body's biggest organs, consisting of some 100 billion nerve cells
that not only put together thoughts and highly coordinated
physical actions but regulate our unconscious body processes,
such as digestion and breathing.
• The brain's nerve cells are known as neurons, which make up the
organ's so-called "gray matter." The neurons transmit and gather
electrochemical signals that are communicated via a network of
millions of nerve fibers called dendrite and axons.
• The brain is an organ located inside your head. The brain and the spinal
cord form the central nervous system. This complex system controls everything
we do. Each part of the brain has a different job. Here are some examples
of functions that the brain controls:
• movement such as walking or stretching
• seeing, smelling, touching, tasting, and hearing (the 5 senses)
• emotions, thoughts, and memory
• breathing and heartbeat
• digesting food
• talking and understanding
• The brain is like a busy city. Each part has different functions and is made up
of different types of cells. To work, different parts of the brain need to send
messages to each other, and to other parts of the body.
• Read further to find out the different parts of the brain and what they do,
how the brain is organized, and what the brain is made of.
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1) Eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue
The function of the Eyes is to see
The function of the ears is to hear
The function of the nose is to smell
The function of the skin is to act as a
cushion against insult to the body
• The function of the tongue is to taste
2)What is the difference between sensory
nerves and motor nerves?
• Sensory nerves are designed to act as transistors and send
sensations to the brain that differentiate between the many
feelings a person is capable of experiencing. Motor nerves
send sensations to the brain that tell various muscles how to
work.
• Forebrain
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• The forebrain plays a critical role in helping the body carry out a number of
vital functions, such as thinking, analyzing, learning and reproducing languages,
processing information received from sensory organs, and regulating and
coordinating movement and motor functions. The brain processes most of the
information received in the cerebral cortex. The thalamus and hypothalamus are
also found in the forebrain, which are involved in transmitting information
received from sensory organs, motor control and regulating and overseeing
autonomic functions.
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• There are two main parts of the peripheral nervous system: the
somatic and autonomic systems. The somatic nervous system
controls all the functions of the body that are voluntary, like
sticking out a tongue or scratching an itch. The central nervous
system controls all the functions that are involuntary, like
breathing and heart rate. Digestion is also part of the central
nervous system and is called the enteric system.
• The autonomic system of the body is broken down further into
the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. The
parasympathetic system controls all the functions of the body
while it is at rest, like salivation and urination. The sympathetic
system controls all the functions of the body while it is under the
effects of stress. It includes such “fight or flight” responses as
shutting down digestion