To interact in appropriate ways with the external environment to stay alive, such as in acquiring food, and to make the internal adjustments necessary to maintain homeostasis, the body must be informed about any changes taking place in the external and the internal environment and must be able to process this information and send messages to various muscles and glands to accomplish the desired results. The nervous system, one of the body’s two major regulatory systems, plays a central role in this lifesustaining communication. The central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord, receives information about the external and the internal environment by means of afferent peripheral nerves. After sorting, processing, and integrating this input, the CNS sends directions, by means of efferent peripheral nerves, to bring about appropriate muscular contractions and glandular secretions. With its swift electrical signaling system, the nervous system is especially important in controlling the rapid responses of the body. Many neurally controlled muscular and glandular activities are aimed toward maintaining homeostasis.

The CNS is the main site of integration between afferent input and efferent output. It links the appropriate response to a particular input so that conditions compatible with life are maintained in the body. For example, when informed by the afferent nervous system that blood pressure has fallen, the CNS sends appro-priate commands via the efferent nervous system to the heart and blood vessels to increase blood pressure to normal. Likewise, when informed that the body is overheated, the CNS promotes secretion of sweat, among other cooling responses. Evaporation of sweat helps cool the body to normal temperature. Were it not for this processing and integrating ability of the CNS, maintaining homeostasis in an organism as complex as a human would be impossible. At the simplest level, the spinal cord integrates many basic protective and evacuative reflexes that do not require conscious participation, such as withdrawing from a painful stimulus and emptying of the urinary bladder. In addition to serving as a more complex integrating link between afferent input and efferent output, the brain is responsible for the initiation of all voluntary movement; complex perceptual awareness of the external environment; self-awareness; language; and abstract neural phenomena such as thinking, learning, remembering,consciousness, emotions, creativity, and personality traits. All neural activity—from the most private thoughts to commands for motor activity, from enjoying a concert to retrieving memories from the distant past—is ultimately attributable to propagation of action potentials along individual nerve cells and chemical transmission between cells. During evolutionary development, the nervous system has become progressively more complex. Newer, more complicated, and more sophisticated layers of the brain have been piled on top of older, more primitive regions. Mechanisms for governing many basic activities necessary for survival are built into the older parts of the brain. The newer, higher levels progressively modify, enhance, or nullify actions coordinated by lower levels in a hierarchy of command; they also add new capabilities. Many of these higher neural activities are not aimed at maintaining life, but they add immeasurably to the

 After the end o f the course,students will be able to learn learn about 

1. Motor Functions of the Spinal Cord; the Cord Reflexes

2.  Cortical and Brain Stem Control of Motor Function

3. Contributions of the Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia to Overall Motor Control

4. Cerebral Cortex, Intellectual Functions of the Brain, Learning, and Memory

5. Behavioral and Motivational Mechanisms of the Brain—The Limbic System and the Hypothalamus

6. States of Brain Activity—Sleep, Brain Waves, Epilepsy, Psychoses, and Dementia

The following Books are recommended for this course;

TEXTBOOK OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, GUYTON,A.C, 11TH Edition

REVIEW OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY ,GANONG,W.F, 22ND Edition

PHYSIOLOGY BOARD REVIEW SERIES, COSTANZO, LINDA S,6TH Edition

ESSENTIALS OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, SEMBULINGHAM,K, 7TH Edition

 Assessment Criteria:

Assessment schedule: 5 tests & one send-up written examination including objective & subjective (SEQs, LEQs) type questions
Internal Assessment (based on class tests, class performance and attendance): 20 Marks
Written: 80 Marks