
The nervous system is made up of nerve cells, or neurons, which control the human organism and coordinate bodily functions. When you need to move, neurons send messages through electrical impulses from your brain to your muscles. For example, if you want to lift your arms or legs, your brain signals to the muscles you use to complete that motion. The neurons then send chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Nerves control muscles through | Electrical impulses sent from the brain to the muscles |
| Motor neurons sending chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move | |
| The nervous system taking in information through the senses, processing it, and triggering reactions | |
| Cells called motoneurons attending to muscles | |
| The transfer of information between individual nerve cells through chemical agents |
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What You'll Learn
- The nervous system is made up of nerve cells, or neurons, which send messages to muscles through electrical impulses
- Motor neurons send chemicals to muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move
- The nervous system controls metabolic processes
- The voluntary nervous system controls the things we are aware of and can consciously influence, such as moving our facial muscles
- The involuntary nervous system regulates the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence, such as breathing and heart rate

The nervous system is made up of nerve cells, or neurons, which send messages to muscles through electrical impulses
When you need to move, neurons send messages through electrical impulses from your brain to your muscles. Your voluntary muscles, which you can consciously control, are signalled once they receive these messages. For example, if you want to lift your arms or legs, your brain signals to the particular muscles you use to complete that motion. When this happens, the motor neurons send chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move.
The nervous system controls both the voluntary nervous system (somatic nervous system) and the involuntary nervous system (vegetative or autonomic nervous system). The voluntary nervous system controls the things that we are aware of and can consciously influence, such as moving the muscles in our face, arms, legs, and torso. The involuntary nervous system regulates the processes in our body that we cannot consciously influence, such as breathing, heart rate, and metabolic processes.
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Motor neurons send chemicals to muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move
The nervous system is made up of all the nerve cells in your body. It is through the nervous system that we communicate with the outside world and, at the same time, many mechanisms inside our body are controlled. The nerve cell, a neuron, is the basic unit of the nervous system. Cells attending to muscles are called motoneurons.
The transfer of information between individual nerve cells is then secured by chemical agents. Information is spread along the neuron through changes in the voltage in the cell membrane, the so-called action potential.
The voluntary nervous system (somatic nervous system) controls all the things that we are aware of and can consciously influence, such as moving the muscles in our face, our arms, legs and torso. The involuntary nervous system (vegetative or autonomic nervous system) regulates the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence. It is constantly active, regulating things such as breathing, heart rate and metabolic processes.
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The nervous system controls metabolic processes
The nervous system also controls muscle movement. When you need to move, neurons send messages through electrical impulses from your brain to your muscles. Your voluntary muscles, which you can consciously control, are signalled once they receive messages. For example, if you want to lift your arms or legs, your brain signals the muscles you need to use to complete that motion. When this happens, the motor neurons send chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move.
The nervous system is divided into the voluntary nervous system (somatic nervous system) and the involuntary nervous system (vegetative or autonomic nervous system). The voluntary nervous system controls all the things that we are aware of and can consciously influence, such as moving the muscles in our face, arms, legs and torso. The involuntary nervous system regulates the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence, such as breathing, heart rate and metabolic processes. It does this by receiving signals from the brain and passing them on to the body. It can also send signals in the other direction – from the body to the brain – providing your brain with information about how full your bladder is or how quickly your heart is beating, for example.
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The voluntary nervous system controls the things we are aware of and can consciously influence, such as moving our facial muscles
The nervous system is made up of nerve cells, or neurons, which are responsible for communicating with the outside world and controlling many mechanisms inside the body. The nervous system takes in information through our senses, processes it, and triggers reactions, such as making our muscles move or causing us to feel pain.
The nervous system can be divided into the voluntary nervous system (somatic nervous system) and the involuntary nervous system (vegetative or autonomic nervous system). The voluntary nervous system controls the things we are aware of and can consciously influence, such as moving our facial muscles, our arms, legs, and torso. For example, if we want to lift our arms, our brain signals to the particular muscles we use to complete that motion. When this happens, the motor neurons send chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move.
The involuntary nervous system, on the other hand, regulates the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence, such as breathing, heart rate, and metabolic processes. It does this by receiving signals from the brain and passing them on to the body, and vice versa.
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The involuntary nervous system regulates the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence, such as breathing and heart rate
The nervous system is made up of all the nerve cells in the body. These nerve cells, or neurons, are responsible for the coordination of all bodily functions, including muscle movement. When you need to move, neurons send messages through electrical impulses from your brain to your muscles. The neurons then send chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move.
The nervous system can be divided into the voluntary nervous system (somatic nervous system) and the involuntary nervous system (vegetative or autonomic nervous system). The involuntary nervous system regulates the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence, such as breathing and heart rate. It is constantly active, receiving signals from the brain and passing them on to the body. It also sends signals from the body to the brain, providing information such as how full your bladder is or how quickly your heart is beating.
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Frequently asked questions
Nerves control muscles by sending messages through electrical impulses from the brain to the muscles. The nerve cells, or neurons, are the basic unit of the nervous system.
Nerve cells, or neurons, are the basic unit of the nervous system. They are composed of a body and projections. The shorter projections are called dendrites, and the longer projection is called an axon. The dendrite obtains information from other neurons, and the axon passes the processed information to other cells, such as muscle cells.
When you need to move, neurons send messages from your brain to your muscles. Once the message is received, motor neurons send chemicals to the muscle fibres, causing them to contract and move.











































