The Autonomic
Nervous System
Sherwyn Hatab RN.
autonomic nervous system
• The autonomic nervous system
is often associated with the
“fight-or-flight response,”
which refers to the preparation
of the body to either run away
from a threat or to stand and
fight in the face of that threat
Most likely, your response would be
flight. Run away!
ANS
• The autonomic nervous system is responsible for the physiological
response to make that possible, and hopefully successful.
• Adrenaline starts to flood your circulatory system. Your heart rate
increases. Sweat glands become active.
• The bronchi of the lungs dilate to allow more air exchange. Pupils
dilate to increase visual information.
• Blood pressure increases in general, and blood vessels dilate in
skeletal muscles. Time to run.
• Similar physiological responses would occur in preparation for fighting
off the threat
ANS
• the autonomic nervous system is not just about
responding to threats. Besides the fight-or-flight
response, there are the responses referred to as
“rest and digest.”
• If that lioness is successful in her hunting, then
she is going to rest from the exertion. Her heart
rate will slow. Breathing will return to normal. The
digestive system has a big job to do.
• Much of the function of the autonomic system is
based on the connections within an autonomic, or
visceral, reflex.
autonomic nervous system
• The ANS activates the involuntary smooth and cardiac
muscles and glands to serve such vital systems that function
automatically as the digestive tract, circulatory system,
respiratory, urinary, and endocrine systems.
• Autonomic functions are under the control of the
hypothalamus, cerebral cortex, and medulla oblongata.
Divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System
• The autonomic nervous system regulates many of the internal organs
through a balance of two aspects, or divisions.
• the autonomic nervous system is instrumental in homeostatic
mechanisms in the body.
• Sympathetic division and the parasympathetic division.
• Sympathetic nervous system is associated with the fight-or-flight
response
• Parasympathetic activity is referred to by the epithet of rest and
digest.
Divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System
• The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems oppose each other in
function, helping to maintain homeostasis, or balanced activity in the
body systems.
• The sympathetic system dilates the eye’s pupil, but the
parasympathetic system contracts it again.
• The sympathetic system quickens and strengthens the heart while the
parasympathetic slows the heart’s action.
• The sympathetic system contracts blood vessels in the skin so more
blood goes to muscles for a fight-or-flight reaction to stress, and the
parasympathetic system dilates the blood vessels when the stress
concludes.
Divisions of the Autonomic
Nervous System
• The sympathetic system, which is
responsible for the body’s involuntary
fight-or-flight response to stress, is
defined by the autonomic fibers that
exit the thoracic and lumbar segments
of the spinal cord . Referred as the
thoracolumbar system.
• ANS response is characterized by the
release of large quantities of
epinephrine from the adrenal gland
Divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System
• The parasympathetic
system is defined by the
autonomic fibers that
either exit the brainstem
via the cranial nerves or
exit the sacral segments of
the spinal cord.
Neurotransmitters
• Where an autonomic neuron connects with a target, there is a
synapse. The electrical signal of the action potential causes the
release of a signaling molecule, which will bind to receptor proteins
on the target cell.
• Synapses of the autonomic system are classified as either cholinergic,
meaning that acetylcholine (ACh) is released, or adrenergic, meaning
that norepinephrine is released.
Neurotransmitters
• Adrenergic is adrenaline,
which is associated with
the fight-or-flight
response.
• Adrenaline and
epinephrine are two
names for the same
molecule secreted by the
adrenal gland
Neurotransmitters
• Neurotransmitters released from nerve
terminals bind to specific receptors, which
are specialized macromolecules embedded
in the cell membrane.
• The binding action initiates a series of
specific biochemical reactions in the target
cell that produce a physiological response. In
the sympathetic nervous system, for
example, there are five types of adrenergic
receptors (receptors binding epinephrine):
α1, α2, β1, β2, and β3.
Neurotransmitters
• These adrenoceptors are found in different combinations in various
cells throughout the body.
• Activation of α1- adrenoceptors in arterioles causes blood-vessel
constriction, whereas stimulation of α2 autoreceptors functions to
inhibit the release of norepinephrine.
• Other types of tissue have unique adrenoceptors. Heart rate and
myocardial contractility, for example, are controlled by β1-
adrenoceptors; bronchial smooth muscle relaxation is mediated by
β2-adrenoceptors; and the breakdown of fat is controlled by β3-
adrenoceptors.
