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A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a vertebrate's body. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 14–16 billion neurons, and the estimated number of neurons in the cerebellum is 55–70 billion. Each neuron is connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons. These neurons typically communicate with one another by means of long fibers called axons, which carry trains of signal pulses called action potentials to distant parts of the brain or body targeting specific recipient cells.
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all parts of the bodies of bilaterally symmetric animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and jellyfish. It is a structure composed of nervous tissue positioned along the rostral to caudal axis of the body and may have an enlarged section at the rostral end which is a brain. Not all animals with a central nervous system have a brain, although the large majority do.
In biology, the classical doctrine of the nervous system determines that it is a highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes that impact the body, then works in tandem with the endocrine system to respond to such events. Nervous tissue first arose in wormlike organisms about 550 to 600 million years ago. However, this classical doctrine has been challenged in recent decades by discoveries about the existence and use of electrical signals in plants. On the basis of these findings, some scientists have proposed that a plant nervous system exists and that a scientific field called plant neurobiology should be created. This proposal has led to a dispute in the scientific community between those who think we should talk about the nervous system of plants and those who are against it. The inflexibility of the positions in the scientific debate on both sides has led to proposing a solution to the debate, consisting of redefining the concept of the nervous system by using only physiological criteria and avoiding phylogenetic criteria.
The gastropods, commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda.
The midbrain or mesencephalon is the forward-most portion of the brainstem and is associated with vision, hearing, motor control, sleep and wakefulness, arousal (alertness), and temperature regulation. The name comes from the Greek mesos, "middle", and enkephalos, "brain".
The cerebrum, telencephalon or endbrain, is the largest part of the brain containing the cerebral cortex, as well as several subcortical structures, including the hippocampus, basal ganglia, and olfactory bulb. In the human brain, the cerebrum is the uppermost region of the central nervous system. The cerebrum develops prenatally from the forebrain (prosencephalon). In mammals, the dorsal telencephalon, or pallium, develops into the cerebral cortex, and the ventral telencephalon, or subpallium, becomes the basal ganglia. The cerebrum is also divided into approximately symmetric left and right cerebral hemispheres.
Cephalization is an evolutionary trend in which, over many generations, the mouth, sense organs, and nerve ganglia become concentrated at the front end of an animal, producing a head region. This is associated with movement and bilateral symmetry, such that the animal has a definite head end. This led to the formation of a highly sophisticated brain in three groups of animals, namely the arthropods, cephalopod molluscs, and vertebrates.
The tusk shells or tooth shells, technically the Scaphopoda, are members of a class of shelled marine mollusc with worldwide distribution, and are the only class of exclusively infaunal marine molluscs. Shells of species within this class range from about 0.5 to 15 cm in length. Members of the order Dentaliida tend to be significantly larger than those of the order Gadilida.
Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called "limpets" descended independently from different ancestral gastropods. This general category of conical shell is known as "patelliform" (dish-shaped). All members of the large and ancient marine clade Patellogastropoda are limpets. Within that clade, the members of the Patellidae family in particular are often referred to as "true limpets".
The Patellogastropoda, common name true limpets and historically called the Docoglossa, are members of a major phylogenetic group of marine gastropods, treated by experts either as a clade or as a taxonomic order.
The nervous system of gastropods consists of a series of paired ganglia connected by major nerve cords, and a number of smaller branching nerves. It is sometimes called ganglionic.
Pseudunela cornuta is a species of minute sea slug, an acochlidian, a shell-less marine and temporarily brackish gastropod mollusk in the family Pseudunelidae. Adults are about 3 mm long and live in the spaces between sand grains.
The evolution of nervous systems dates back to the first development of nervous systems in animals. Neurons developed as specialized electrical signaling cells in multicellular animals, adapting the mechanism of action potentials present in motile single-celled and colonial eukaryotes. Many primitive systems, like those found in complex protozoa, use non-electrical signaling for motility and other aspects necessary for survival. Data suggests that these systems, which use a chemical gradient for messaging, evolved into the electrical-signaling cells known today.
Bathyacmaea secunda is a species of very small, deep-sea limpet, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pectinodontidae. This species inhabits the dark, chemosynthesis-based marine communities of ocean vents and cold seeps near Japan.
The term hypoathroid is used to describe the arrangement of ganglia in the nervous system of molluscs. In the hypoathroid state, the pleural ganglia of the "chest" and the pedal ganglia of the "feet" lie close to each other more or less underneath the gut, and they communicate with the cerebral ganglia via long connectives. It is a condition that is characteristic of the Archaeogastropoda clade, and represents one end of a three-part spectrum of such arrangements, the other two being the dystenoid system in which the pleural and cerebral ganglia are closer together but still distinctly separate, and the epiathroid condition in which the pleural, pedal, and cerebral ganglia all lie close together (characteristic, for example, of the Mesogastropoda and Neogastropoda. The centralization of the nervous system generally is considered evidence of an evolutionary advancement among molluscs, while the more diffuse condition is viewed as a sign of evolutionary proximity to the hypothetical "archimollusc" ancestor of all molluscs.
The following Diagram is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the human nervous system:
Berghia stephanieae is a species of sea slug, an aeolid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Aeolidiidae. It was previously known as Aeolidiella stephanieae.
A dystenoid nervous system is an arrangement of ganglia in the anterior region of some molluscs in which the cerebral and pleural ganglia are situated closer to each other than they are in those molluscs with the more archaic hypoathroid nervous system but still farther apart than those animals with an evolutionarily more recent epiathroid nervous system.
A circumesophageal or circumpharyngeal nerve ring is an arrangement of nerve ganglia around the esophagus/ pharynx of an animal. It is a common feature of nematodes, molluscs, and many other invertebrate animals, though it is absent in all vertebrate animals and is not structurally possible in simpler ones such as water bears.
Bathyhedyle boucheti is a species of panpulmonate slug, a deep-sea dwelling gastropod native to the continental slope off the coast of Mozambique. It is the first ever such panpulmonate slug to be discovered at such depths. It is the only known member of its family group. Its radular formula is 1.1.2.
References
- ↑ Chase, Ronald (2002). Behavior and Its Neural Control in Gastropod Molluscs. Oxford University. p. 22. ISBN 9780195354485.
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