CBSE Tutorials

ANIMALS – NERVOUS SYSTEM

In animals, such control and coordination are provided by nervous and muscular tissues, which we have studied in Class IX. Touching a hot object is an urgent and dangerous situation for us. We need to detect it,

and respond to it. How do we detect that we are touching a hot object? All information from our environment is detected by the specialised tips of some nerve cells. These receptors are usually located in our sense organs, such as the inner ear, the nose, the tongue, and so on. So gustatory receptors will detect taste while olfactory receptors will detect smell.

This information, acquired at the end of the dendritic tip of a nerve cell [Fig. 7.1 (a)], sets off a chemical reaction that creates an electrical impulse. This impulse travels from the dendrite to the cell body, and then along the axon to its end. At the end of the axon, the electrical impulse sets off the release of some chemicals. These chemicals cross the gap, or synapse, and start a similar electrical impulse in a dendrite of the next neuron. This is a general scheme of how nervous impulses travel in the body. A similar synapse finally allows delivery of such impulses from neurons to other cells, such as muscles cells or gland [Fig. 7.1 (b)].

It is thus no surprise that nervous tissue is made up of an organized network of nerve cells or neurons, and is specialised for conducting information via electrical impulses from one part of the body to another.

Look at Fig. 7.1 (a) and identify the parts of a neuron (i) where information is acquired, (ii) through which information travels as an electrical impulse, and (iii) where this impulse must be converted into a chemical signal for onward transmission.

Activity 7.1

1. Put some sugar in your mouth. How does it taste?
2. Block your nose by pressing it between your thumb and index finger. Now eat sugar again. Is there any difference in its taste?
3. While eating lunch, block your nose in the same way and notice if you can fully appreciate the taste of the food you are eating.

Is there a difference in how sugar and food taste if your nose is blocked? If so, why might this be happening? Read and talk about possible explanations for these kinds of differences. Do you come across a similar situation when you have a cold?