The Nervous System and Role In Breathing

1.3 The Role Of The Nervous System In
Generating Breathing Rhythm
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Our nervous system is what is responsible for receiving information that we get from outside the body, for example it lets us know if we are too cold or toowarm. The nervous system consist in the brain, the spinal cord and our nerves. The spinal cord is a long, round shape organ, it is in the spinal canal that sits inside the vertebrae, inside the spinal canal there is a central cavity that consist off cerebrospinal fluid. The nerves are made of either nerve cells or neurones, their structure varies as to where they are in the body and what they do. All of the cells have a cell body that contains a nucleus, these are normally in the brain or spinal cord. The brain as four parts one is the brain stem also known as the medulla, this is responsible for our involuntary reflex actions, the cerebellum is responsible for our posture and helps coordinate our movement, messages are received from the cerebrum, muscles and joints, the third is the diencephalon this controls the homeostatic mechanisms and our automatic nerve system. This contains the thalamus and the hypothalamus. The last part is the cerebrum, this is the largest part of the brain and it is a big part of the forebrain. This is divided into three sections and they control movement, figure out our sensory impulses and help us figure out our thoughts, memory's, emotions and also help us deter our own personalities.
The nerves that come from the diaphragm go up to the spinal cord and lead to the medulla oblongata, this is what is responsible for controlling our breathing, it is known as our respiratory centre. The neurones that are in the medulla oblongata are also connected to a second respiratory centre in the pons. It is the interaction between these two centres that enable us to breath with out thinking about it, the neurons are both stimulatory and inhibitory. If we try to control our breathing then the centres are taken over by the cerebella cortex, this is because there is a direct connection to the muscles that control respiration through the relevant motor neurones that come straight from the motor cortex of the cerebella cortex. The pons consist of a standard breathing rate, however this differs and that is so a connection can be made between the pons and medulla, the sensors that detect oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration in the blood are found in the aortic arch.
In conclusion our nervous system help control everything in our body and if they fail then our body wouldn't be able to function. Our breathing is fully controlled by messages being sent through us inhaling and the medulla picking this up.