CONTROL AND

COORDINATION
Chapter 7
• Plants and animals respond to changes in the environment and react accordingly
• The changes to which the organism responds is called a stimuli.
• Stimuli could be light, temperature- heat or cold, touch, sound and smell.
• Receptors help in receiving any change in the environment.
• Receptors could be of various kind-

Receptors

Olfactory Gustatory Auditory

Photoreceptor Thermoreceptor
receptor receptor receptor
Receptors are present in the sense organs of our body.

Photoreceptor- present in the eyes, they receive the visual

stimulus

Thermoreceptor/ thigmoreceptor- present in the skin, respond

to touch/pain/ temperature

Olfactory receptor- present in the nose, for detecting smell

Gustatory receptor- present in the tongue, for taste detection

Auditory receptor- present in the ear, for receiving sound

 NERVOUS SYSTEM
comprises of-
• Neurons/ nerve cells - Peripheral Nervous system

• Brain

Central nervous system

• Spinal cord
 Nerve cell- neuron
• Information from our
environment is detected by the
specialised tips of some nerve
cells. These receptors are usually
located in our sense organs, such
as the inner ear, the nose, the
tongue, etc.
• Single neuron comprises of cell
body, axon and nerve ending.
• Neurons communicate with one
another at junctions called as
SYNAPSE.
• The neuron is designed to transmit information to other nerve cells, muscle, or gland cells.
• Most neurons have a cell body, an axon, and dendrites.
• Some axons are myelinated which is important because its function is to increase the speed of
impulses spreading along the myelinated fibres. This myelin sheath allows electrical impulses to
transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve.
• Nodes of Ranvier are gaps in the myelin sheath coating on the neural axon.
 Transmission of signal

CELL BODY NERVE

ENDING
Myelinated and
non-myelinated
nerve fibres
 Transmission of signal
• Information is acquired at the end of
the dendritic tip of a nerve cell
• It sets off a chemical reaction that
creates an electrical impulse.
• This impulse travels from the dendrite
to the cell body, and then along the
axon to its end.
• At the end of the axon, the electrical
impulse sets off the release of some
chemicals.
• These chemicals cross the gap, or
synapse, and start a similar electrical
impulse in a dendrite of the next
neuron.
Neuromuscular
junction
synapse between the
neuron and muscle
fibre
Identify the parts of a neuron
(i) Where information is acquired – ?
(ii) through which information travels as an
electrical impulse and – ?
(iii)where this impulse must be converted into a
chemical signal for onward transmission – ?
Identify the parts of a neuron
(i) Where information is acquired – DENDRITES
(ii) through which information travels as an
electrical impulse and – CELL BODY AND AXON
(iii)where this impulse must be converted into a
chemical signal for onward transmission –
NERVE ENDING/ NERVE TERMINALS/ AXON
TERMINALS
 Types of neuron
• Based on their function, neurons are of
three types
• Sensory neuron- neurons which respond to
stimuli and transfer signal to the spinal
cord/brain
• Interneuron/ relay neuron- help in
transmitting signals from sensory neuron
to the Central Nervous system and from
Central Nervous system to the motor
neuron
• Motor neuron- leaves from the brain/spinal
cord and reach the effector muscle/ gland
 Reflex Action
• involuntary
• instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus
• Examples of reflex action –
When light acts as a stimulus, the pupil of the eye changes in size
Sudden jerky withdrawal of hand or leg when pricked by a pin, or when
you touch anything hot/cold
Reflex Arc
Reflex Arc
Reflex Action- Knee Jerk movement
Reflex Action- touching a hot/cold plate
 HUMAN BRAIN
Brain and spinal cord together form- Central nervous system (CNS)
• Brain is protected inside the bony structure- SKULL / CRANIUM
• Inside this bony box, the brain is contained in a fluid-filled balloon which
provides further shock absorption (cerebrospinal fluid)
• Spinal Cord is protected inside the vertebral column (back bone)
• Peripheral Nervous system comprises of nerves arising from brain and
spinal cord which communicate with all parts of the body.
 Regions of
human brain

Fore brain Mid brain Hind brain

 FORE BRAIN
• Comprises of Cerebrum, hypothalamus, pituitary gland
FUNCTIONS
• Thinking center of the brain, Associated with Memory, problem solving, reasoning
• receives sensory impulses from various receptors
• Separate areas of the fore-brain are specialised for hearing, smell, sight
• Center for hunger- it gives a sensation of feeling full after eating
• Left side of the fore brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa
 MID BRAIN
• Processes auditory and visual information
• Controls involuntary actions

HIND BRAIN
Hind brain Comprises of Pons, medulla and cerebellum
FUNCTIONS of hind brain-
• Medulla controls involuntary actions including blood pressure, salivation and vomiting
• Cerebellum – maintaining the balance and posture of the body (walking in a straight line, riding a
bicycle, picking up a pencil)
• Pons- controls respiration
 How does nervous tissue cause action?
• When a nerve impulse reaches the muscle, the muscle fibre must move.
• Musclecells have special proteins that change both their shape and their
arrangement in the cell in response to nervous electrical impulses.
• When this happens, new arrangements of these proteins give the muscle
cells a shorter form.
• voluntary muscles- attached to the skeleton system. They are in our
control
• Involuntary muscles- are present in the organs. They are not in our
control.
 COORDINATION IN PLANTS
Plants have neither a nervous system nor muscles. Yet they respond to
stimuli.
Plant Movements could be of two types-
• Nastic movement
• Tropic movement
 TROPIC MOVEMENT NASTIC MOVEMENT

Direction oriented response Non directional response

Growth dependent movement Growth independent movement

Slow response, irreversible Fast response, reversible

Stimulus could be- light, gravity, Stimulus could be- touch, temperature
chemicals, water
examples- phototropism, geotropism, Examples- Movement of leaves by Minosa
chemotropism, hydrotropism plant (touch-me-not), opening and
closing of stomata, venus fly trap
Nastic movement
Sensitive plant moves its leaves in response to touch.
But there is no nervous tissue, nor any muscle tissue to
communicate the message.
Some cells must change shape in order for movement
to happen.
Instead of the specialised proteins found in animal
muscle cells, plant cells change shape by changing
the amount of water in them, resulting in swelling or
shrinking, and therefore in changing shapes.
 TROPIC MOVEMENT
Growth dependent; directional movements
• Thigmotropism – growth due to touch
• Phototropism- growth due to sunlight
• Geotropism- growth due to gravity
• Hydrotropism- growth due to water
• Chemotropism- growth due to chemicals

Movements could be either

towards the stimulus- positive
or
away of the stimulus - negative
 THIGMOTROPISM
• Some plants like the pea plant climb up
other plants or fences by means of
tendrils.
• These tendrils are sensitive to touch.
• When they come in contact with any
support, the part of the tendril in contact
with the object does not grow as rapidly as
the part of the tendril away from the
object.
• This causes the tendril to circle around the
object and thus cling to it.
 Phototropism
• shoots respond by
bending towards light
while roots respond
by bending away
from it
• Shoots show positive
phototropism
• Roots show negative
phototropism
 Geotropism

• The roots of a plant always grow

downwards while the shoots
usually grow upwards and away
from the earth.
• Roots – show positive geotropism
• Shoots - show negative geotropism
 Hydrotropism
• place a plant in soil with a low water
potential but with a porous pot filled
with water nearby, as you can see in
Figure.
• The water will leak out of the pores in
the pot, making the water potential in
the soil to the right of the plant
higher.
• The figure shows how the plant roots
will then be observed to grow to the
right, toward the soil with a higher
water potential.
 Chemotropism

•The growth of pollen

tubes towards ovules is a
chemotropic movement
 Plant hormones
• Different plant hormones help to coordinate growth, development and responses to the
environment. They are synthesised at places away from where they act and simply diffuse to the
area of action.

Plant hormone Function

Auxin Regulates growth in plants –
Movement of plant towards light/ thigmotropism
Gibberellins Help in the growth of stems

Cytokinin Helps in cell division. Present in areas which show rapid cell
division
Abscisic acid Inhibits growth, causes wilting of leaves
Hormones in Animals
 HORMONES
• Hormones are released by GLANDS present in the body
• Hormones are chemical substances.
• These
are secretions from endocrine glands, or endocrine
system.
 TYPES OF GLANDS

ENDOCRINE GLAND
EXOCRINE GLAND
1. Ductless glands
1. release their secretions through
ducts 2. Release their secretions directly into
the blood stream
2. Examples- salivary glands, sweat
glands, mammary glands, pancreas 3. Examples – Pituitary gland, thyroid
gland, pancreas, adrenal, testis, ovary
gland Hormone Function Special remark
released
Hypothalamus Releasing Stimulates pituitary gland to release
hormones hormones
Pituitary Growth Stimulates growth in all organs Less growth hormone causes-
hormone DWARFISM
High growth hormone causes-
GIGANTISM
Thyroid Thyroxin Regulates metabolism for body growth Lack of iodine in diet, leads to GOITRE
(requires Iodine) as the thyroid gland swells to produce
more thyroxin.

Pancreas Insulin Regulates blood sugar level Less insulin causes high blood sugar-
DIABETES
Adrenal Adrenaline (fight Helps dealing with emotions (happy, sad,
or flight hormone) angry, nervousness, stress)

Testis (male) Testosterone Development of male sex organs

Ovary (female) Estrogen Development of female sex organs,

regulates menstrual cycle, etc.
GIGANTISM & DWARFISM
 Add to your knowledge !

gland Hormone Function

released
Pineal gland Melatonin Controls sleep pattern

Parathyroid Parathyroid Controls calcium level in the body

hormone

Thymus Many hormones Trains the cells of the immune system