Anatomy & Physiology

Chapter Review

The primary responsibilities of the autonomic nervous system are to regulate homeostatic mechanisms in the body, which is also part of what the endocrine system does. The key to understanding the autonomic system is to explore the response pathways—the output of the nervous system. The way we respond to the world around us, to manage the internal environment on the basis of the external environment, is divided between two parts of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic division responds to threats and produces a readiness to confront the threat or to run away: the fight-or-flight response. The parasympathetic division plays the opposite role. When the external environment does not present any immediate danger, a restful mode descends on the body, and the digestive system is more active.

The sympathetic output of the nervous system originates out of the lateral horn of the thoracolumbar spinal cord. An axon from one of these central neurons projects by way of the ventral spinal nerve root and spinal nerve to a sympathetic ganglion, either in the sympathetic chain ganglia or one of the collateral locations, where it synapses on a ganglionic neuron. These preganglionic fibers release ACh, which excites the ganglionic neuron through the nicotinic receptor. The axon from the ganglionic neuron—the postganglionic fiber—then projects to a target effector where it will release norepinephrine to bind to an adrenergic receptor, causing a change in the physiology of that organ in keeping with the broad, divergent sympathetic response. The postganglionic connections to sweat glands in the skin and blood vessels supplying skeletal muscle are, however, exceptions; those fibers release ACh onto muscarinic receptors. The sympathetic system has a specialized preganglionic connection to the adrenal medulla that causes epinephrine and norepinephrine to be released into the bloodstream rather than exciting a neuron that contacts an organ directly. This hormonal component means that the sympathetic chemical signal can spread throughout the body very quickly and affect many organ systems at once.

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The parasympathetic output is based in the brain stem and sacral spinal cord. Neurons from particular nuclei in the brain stem or from the lateral horn of the sacral spinal cord (preganglionic neurons) project to terminal (intramural) ganglia located close to or within the wall of target effectors. These preganglionic fibers also release ACh onto nicotinic receptors to excite the ganglionic neurons. The postganglionic fibers then contact the target tissues within the organ to release ACh, which binds to muscarinic receptors to induce rest-and-digest responses.

Signaling molecules utilized by the autonomic nervous system are released from axons and can be considered as either neurotransmitters (when they directly interact with the effector) or as hormones (when they are released into the bloodstream). The same molecule, such as norepinephrine, could be considered either a neurotransmitter or a hormone on the basis of whether it is released from a postganglionic sympathetic axon or from the adrenal gland. The synapses in the autonomic system are not always the typical type of connection first described in the neuromuscular junction. Instead of having synaptic end bulbs at the very end of an axonal fiber, they may have swellings—called varicosities—along the length of a fiber so that it makes a network of connections within the target tissue.

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