Central nervous system

From Drug Rehab Wiki

The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal column. Both contain millions of nerve cells that control all the functions of the body.

The central nervous system is the apparatus that allows a person to detect changes in his environment and then respond to them. Humans have complex central nervous systems that allow them to respond to sensations in their environment in complex ways. For example, a complex response to an environment stimulus occurs someone goes outside, detects that it is cold, thinks about that, goes back inside, and gets a coat. The nervous system also controls all the functions of internal body organs, but this is done "automatically" and without conscious thought. Your brain controls the speed of your heart rate, for example, and your rate of breathing without your thinking about them.

The central nervous system is one of three parts of the human nervous system. The peripheral nervous system consists of a network of nerve cells which carry information from the body to the brain, and the autonomic nervous system, located at the base of the brain, controls the heart, lungs, kidneys, intestine, and bladder.