refined Nervous_system Information, explanation, recent texts, monographs, and related patents.
Information & explanations, latest texts & monographs on Nervous_system (including recent related patents.)


Nervous system

The nervous system of an animal coordinates the activity of the muscles, monitors the organs, constructs and processes input from the senses and initiates actions. In animals with brains, the nervous system also generates and conducts thoughts and emotions. Thus it is the system that animates "animals" (sponges are an exception). Chemicals that target the activity of nerves generally are the most rapidly acting toxins, typically causing paralysis and/or death. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Anatomy 2 Vertebrate nervous systems 3 Nervous system diversity 4 See also Anatomy The nervous system consists basically of two types of cells:
  • Neurons are the primary cells of the nervous system
  • Glia are secondary cells involved in nourishment and structural support.
Rapid signalling within the nervous system occurs by two primary mechanisms: Vertebrate nervous systems For heuristic and other purposes, the nervous systems of vertebrate animals are often divided into a central (CNS) and a peripheral nervous systems (PNS). The CNS consists of the brain and spinal cord. The PNS consists of sensory pathways and motor pathways, the latter being divided into the somatic (voluntary) nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. The somatic nervous system is the voluntary part of the nervous where it coordinates the movement such as posture and walking. The autonomic nervous system is the involuntary part of the nervous system where all of the internal maintenance is taken care of. The autonomic nervous system is then divided into the sympathetic division and parasympathetic division. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the excitment that a person feels due to the increase of heartbeat. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, is the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system. This system is in play when a person is resting and feels relaxed due to the slowing down of the heartbeat. Nervous system diversity The nervous system varies greatly among living animals. Cnidarians, such as sea anemones and jellyfish, have a nerve net, in which the activation of any one neuron triggers a wave of activation across the entire network. These waves are both afferent and efferent, representing both the sensation of chemicals or touch as well as the stimulus of the animals' reflexive mechanical response.The worms and flukes of the phylum platyhelminthes possess a network of nerves that operates like a more conventional nervous system, but lack a brain. Annelid worms and tunicates have a primitive brain called a ganglionic mass, which is a bundle of several nerves. Based in part on commonalities in embryonic development among all chordates, the tunicate brain is believed to resemble the evolutionary precursor of the vertebrate brainstem. See also

This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life by Steven Johnson

The 36-Hour Day : A Family Guide to Caring for Persons With Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementing Illnesses, and Memory Loss in Later Life by Nancy L. Mace

Blindsided : Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir by Richard Cohen

Soul Made Flesh : The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World by Carl Zimmer

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat : And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

Learning to Speak Alzheimer's : A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease by Joanne Koenig Coste

Children With Starving Brains: A Medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Second Edition by Jaquelyn McCandless

The Memory Cure : How to Protect Your Brain Against Memory Loss and Alzheimer's Disease by Majid Fotuhi

His Brother's Keeper : A Story from the Edge of Medicine by Jonathan Weiner

Alzheimer's Early Stages: First Steps for Family, Friends, and Caregivers by Daniel Kuhn

Say Good Night to Insomnia : The Six-Week, Drug-Free Program Developed At Harvard Medical School by Gregg Jacobs

The Multiple Sclerosis Diet Book by Barbara Brewer Dugan

A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback by Jim Robbins

Numb Toes and Aching Soles: Coping with Peripheral Neuropathy by John A. Senneff

Neuroradiology: The Requisites (Requisites in Radiology) by Robert I. Grossman


Recent Nervous_system related patents

From USPTO:
6718208: Method and system for nerve stimulation prior to and during a medical procedure
6718207: Electromagnetic interference immune tissue invasive system
6718203: Electromagnetic interference immune tissue invasive system
6718201: Electrotransport agent delivery method and apparatus
6717031: Method for selecting a transgenic mouse model of alzheimer's disease
6717030: Protein kinase C epsilon as modulator of anxiety, alcohol consumption and self-administration of drugs of abuse
6717012: Antioxidant nitroxides and nitrones as therapeutic agents
6716998: Process for synthesis of 2-yl chroman derivatives
6716987: Derivatives of benzofuran or benzodioxazole compounds
6716986: Sulfuric acid mono-[3-({1-[2-(4-fluoro-phenyl)-ethyl]-piperidin-4-YL}-hydroxy-methyl)-2- methoxy-phenyl]ester
6716974: Therapeutic and diagnostic methods and compositions based on jagged/notch proteins and nucleic acids
6716964: CtIP, a novel protein that interacts with CtBP and uses therefor
6716872: Substituted pyrrolidine-2,3,4-trione 3-oxime derivatives which are active as NMDA receptor antagonists
6716871: Cyclic AMP-specific phosphodie sterase inhibitors
6716870: Prodrugs of 3-(pyrrol-2-ylmethylidene)-2-indolinone derivatives
6716868: (-)-1-(3,4-Dichlorophenyl)-3-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane, compositions thereof, and uses as a dopamine-reuptake inhibitor
6716865: Benzoxa- and benzthiazoles
6716860: Azo amino acids derivatives
6716857: Tetrahydropyridine derivatives acting on muscarinic acetylcholine receptors
6716854: Treatments for restless legs syndrome
6716846: High affinity ligands for nociceptin receptor ORL-1
6716833: Acetylenic .alpha.-amino acid-based sulfonamide hydroxamic acid tace inhibitors
6716828: Compounds, methods and pharmaceutical compositions for treating cellular damage, such as neural or cardiovascular tissue damage
6716826: Compounds and their uses
6716822: Therapeutic agent for ischemia which inhibits apoptosis under ischemic condition
6716818: Caspase inhibitors and the use thereof
6716810: Composition and method for regulation of body weight and associated conditions
6716626: Human FGF-21 nucleic acids
6716600: Persephin and related growth factors
6716597: Methods and products for regulating cell motility
6716595: Method for detecting sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) for cancer detection
6716591: B. burgdorferi polypeptides
6716589: Discordant helix stabilization for prevention of amyloid formation
6716586: Insulin-like growth factor agonist molecules
6716574: Osp-C derived peptide fragments
6716451: Formulation and delivery method to enhance antioxidant potency of vitamin E
6716429: Stabilization of envelope glycoprotein trimers by disulfide bonds introduced into a gp 41 glycoprotein ectodomain
6716427: Method for treating hypocalcemia
6716425: Method of preventing cancer recurrence
6716423: Recombinant neospora antigens and their uses
6716220: Stereotaxic holders, stereotaxic alignment systems comprising same, and methods for using same
6715219: Weighted footwear insert
6715158: Padded garment to prevent pressure sores and other injuries to hips and buttocks of immobilized persons
RE38490: Method for identifying metastatic sequences
6714822: Apparatus and method for expanding a stimulation lead body in situ
6714811: Method and apparatus for monitoring heart rate
6713651: .beta.2-adrenergic receptor agonists
6713645: Substituted tricyclics
6713635: 2-oxo-1-pyrrolidine derivatives, process for preparing them and their uses

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