Exploring the Brain and Nervous System

Have you ever wondered how your ears know when you hear a bird chirping? Or how your body knows when you’ve been hurt? How does your nose know when it smells delicious food cooking? All of these things mean that your nervous system is hard at work telling your body what is happening in the world around you. The nervous system has many different parts that work together to control what your body feels, what you think, how you move, and so much more.

Let’s talk about the two parts of the nervous system.

First, we have the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord. The brain is quite possibly the most important organ because it is responsible for sending and receiving messages to and from the rest of the body. It is protected by the skull and has three main parts:

• The cerebrum (suh-REE-bruhm) helps us to make sense of our environment or interactions and controls how we speak, think, feel, solve problems, and use our senses. It is the largest part of the brain and is split into left and right sides or hemispheres (HEM-is-feers): o The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and is responsible for abstract thought. This is the creative part of the brain that works when you are listening to music or seeing colors and shapes. o The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and is responsible for analytical thought. This is the logical part of the brain that works when you are reasoning, speaking, and solving math problems. • The cerebellum (sair-uh-BELL-uhm) is smaller than the cerebrum and sits at the back of the brain. Its main purpose is to help us with balance, coordination, and muscle control. We use this part of the brain when we are standing up straight, throwing a ball, or trying to stay balanced. Think about walking on a balance beam or a tightrope – you need your cerebellum for this! • The brain stem is what connects the cerebrum and cerebellum to the spinal cord. While this area also helps with body movement, it really controls our breathing, blood flow, body temperature (how hot or cold we are), and digestion (how our bodies take in food). These are automatic functions of the body that we don’t even have to think about because the brain stem is hard at work taking care of them.

The spinal cord is a long structure that starts at the bottom of the brain stem and extends all the way down the spine, which is located in your back. It is protected by vertebrae (VUR-ti-bray), which are bones that are shaped like rings. Inside the spinal cord are tiny neurons (NEW-ronz), small cells that act as communicators. The neurons send different signals to and from the brain, and when you have a bunch of neurons together, they make up your nerves. These nerves are responsible for carrying messages back and forth between the body and the brain. Think of your neurons as little mailmen and your nerves as tiny little roads on which the mailmen have to travel with the messages.

The peripheral nervous system contains all the other nerves throughout the rest of the body. These nerves respond to certain stimuli in the environment. For example, if you touch a hot stove, how does your body know to pull your hand away? When your hand touches a hot surface, the neurons in your hand quickly send a message through the nerves and to the brain that says, “Ouch! This is hot!”. The brain processes that message and tells your body to move your hand away from the stove. These messages between the body and the brain travel super fast before you really have time to think about what just happened!

Signals, or messages, are sent on a two-way path. Messages sent from the body to the brain travel through the sensory nervous system using the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch). Messages sent from the brain to the body travel through the motor system. If you want to kick a ball, the brain sends a message down the spinal cord and to your leg that tells your leg to kick.

As you can see, the nervous system is extremely important and helps to keep you alive in many ways. Just as our nervous system takes care of us, we also need to care for it.

So, how do you keep your brain healthy and strong?

Eating healthy foods is probably the number one thing that you can do to strengthen your brain and body. Along with this, it is important to make sure that you are getting plenty of exercise (run around outside, ride a bike, do some yoga). It is not only essential to exercise your body, but reading, doing puzzles, and getting creative with art can exercise your brain. Rest is also very necessary for brain function, so getting enough sleep will allow your brain to feel refreshed and ready each day. These are just some of the ways you can help keep your nervous system healthy and strong.