Functional Design of the Nervous System

Abstract

The nervous sytem is concerned with the rapid transfer of information through the body in the form of electrical signals. The cells of the nervous system are called neurons. In some primitive invertebrates we find a simple network of undifferentiated nerve cells. In contrast, the human neurons show great variations in their shapes in relation to their specialized functions. The bulk of nerve cell bodies are collected in the central nervous system (CNS). The peripheral nerve system consists of the sensory neurons (afferent neurons, i. e., those which convey information to the central nervous system) and motor neurons or motoneurons (efferent neurons, which convey information from the CNS to the body).