Human Nervous System Diagram

Diagrams! They remind me of school textbooks which used to have plenty of them, providing a visual aid to understanding difficult subjects. This article explains the nervous system function and structure with the help of a human nervous system diagram and gives you that erstwhile 'textbook feel'. Read on...

Human nervous system diagram; the title brought back the memories of school days; the scent of those textbooks; the sight of the classroom and my teacher's voice that said, "C'mon class, open your science books, page 41, chapter 3, Human Body Systems". Studying human anatomy became interesting, thanks to her. She used to say, "Thehuman body systems are the most accurately engineered machines that possess an intellect of their own. Look at the brain, for example; man will never be able to replicate its intricate design or recreate intelligence and emotion". It was wonderful to pick up the intricacies of a seemingly boring subject like human anatomy from her. She was a person who looked at science through a philosopher's eye.

Reading this article will be like reading about the human nervous system from your science textbook as this article carries a labeled human nervous system diagram to help you understand its design and working. For me, diagrams and illustrations that textbooks carried, were always of great help in understanding the topic. It was the labeled animal cell diagram that 'magnified my image' of the microscopic cell. It was the skeletal system diagram that helped me understand the "skeleton" of human bodies. And it was when I first studied the diagram of a human heart, I realized that the heart is not exactly heart-shaped!

Now let me come to the point. And the point is that I have to explain the human nervous system function and parts with the help of a labeled human nervous system diagram. Before going to the details of the structure and functioning of the human nervous system, you should know what the nervous system actually is and what it does. The nervous system is a network of special cells, neurons and ganglia, that work together to carry out the transmission and reception of signals between the different parts of our body. The signals are transmitted in the form of electrochemical waves or chemicals. Before you proceed to understand the human nervous system function and parts, you might like to go through some human nervous system facts. So here are some interesting facts about nervous system for you along with an answer to how does the nervous system work.

Neurons
Neuron can be considered as the basic unit of the nervous system, which processes and transmits information by means of electrochemical signals. Sensory neurons respond to external stimuli that affect the sensory organ cells. Motor neurons, on receiving signals from the central nervous system, bring about responses at the target organs. Interneurons act as the connectors between neurons. Neurons are of different shapes and sizes and their complex interconnections add to the complexity of the nervous system. The complexity is pretty evident from the human nervous system diagram given above. The human brain contains 86.1 billion neurons.

Glia
Glia or glial cells, as they are called, are non-neural cells that play a vital role in maintaining homeostasis and protecting the brain's neurons. The glial cells surround the neurons to hold them in place, supply them with oxygen and nutrients, isolate the neurons from one another and remove dead neurons. The human brain contains about 84.6 billion glia; that's almost equal to the number of neurons it contains.

The human nervous system can be divided into two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous system (CNS) consists of the brain and the spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system (PNS) consists of sensory neurons, ganglia (clusters of neurons) and nerves. Here is a labeled human nervous system diagram that you can refer to, while you read about the human nervous system function and parts.