Need-to-know facts about the nervous system: fundamentals The nervous system can be divided into three main anatomical divisions: • the central nervous system (CNS): consists of the brain, brainstem and spinal cord • the peripheral nervous system (PNS): comprising the nerves that leave the brainstem and the spinal cord • the autonomic nervous system (ANS): includes the sympathetic and parasympa...

An unusual, but common, aversion to images with clusters of holes is known as trypophobia. Recent research suggests that trypophobic reactions are caused by visual spectral properties also present in aversive images of evolutionary threatening animals (e.g., snakes and spiders). However, despite similar spectral properties, it remains unknown whether there is a shared emotional response to hole...

BACKGROUND Heart rate variability (HRV) describes the cyclic variations in heart rate and offers a non-invasive tool for investigating the modulatory effects of neural mechanisms elicited by the autonomic nervous system on intrinsic heart rate. OBJECTIVE To introduce the HRV concept to healthy volunteers under control conditions and during scuba diving. In contrast with more established manoe...

The control of heart rate by the autonomic nervous system was investigated in conscious human subjects by observing the effects of /3-adrenergic blockade with propranolol, of parasympathetic blockade with atropine, and of combined sympathetic and parasympathetic blockade. The increase in heart rate with mild exercise in supine men was mediated predominantly by a decrease in parasympathetic acti...

Introduction American lung association report,there were 1.8 million emergency department visits and 3,816 deaths per year attributable to asthma [1]. according to (GINA2012) the role of complementary and alternative medicine in adult asthma treatment are limited because these approaches have been insufficiently researched and their effect are largely unproven [2]. The parasympathetic nervous s...

Obesity, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome are associated with changes to the gut microbiota; however, the mechanism by which modifications to the gut microbiota might lead to these conditions is unknown. Here we show that increased production of acetate by an altered gut microbiota in rodents leads to activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which, in turn, promotes increa...

The pathogenesis of monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis is controversial. Various urodynamic studies showed bladder hyperactivity in enuretic children. But the exact cause is not precisely known. The aim of this study was to understand whether the autonomic nervous system dysfunction is involved in this bladder hyperactivity or not. Heart rate variability measurement is widely used for evaluatio...

We examined the relationship of temperament dimensions serving as markers for Gray's behavioral activation system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) with autonomic stress reactivity in 35 middle-aged men. Temperament was measured using the Strelau Temperament Inventory--Revised. Skin conductance responses and inter-beat interval were measured during administration of the Rorschach tes...