GCSE Biology (OCR A)

Topic Summaries

The nervous system and homeostasis

The nervous system

  • The nervous system enables humans to react to their surroundings and to coordinate their behaviour.

  • The stimulus is the change that the body must respond to.
  • The receptor is the cell or part of a cell that detects the change and generates an electrical impulse. The information passes along neurone cells as electrical impulses to the central nervous system (CNS) which is made up of the brain and spinal cord and coordinates the response involving effectors.
  • The effector response may involve causing muscles to contract or glands to secrete hormones.

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