The parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS, or occasionally PNS) is one of the three main divisions of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is responsible for regulation of internal organs and glands, which occurs unconsciously. To be specific, the parasympathetic system is responsible for stimulation of "rest-and-digest" or "feed and breed" activities that occur when the body is at rest, especially after eating, including sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation (tears), urination, digestion, and defecation. Its action is described as being complementary to that of one of the other main branches of the ANS, the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for stimulating activities associated with the fight-or-flight response.
Read more about Parasympathetic Nervous System: Relation To Sympathetic Nervous System, Physical Location, Sensation, Cranial Nerve Parasympathetic Paths and Control, Pelvic Splanchnic Control, Clinical Significance, Receptors
Famous quotes containing the words nervous system, nervous and/or system:
“A two-week-old infant cries an average of one and a half hours every day. This increases to approximately three hours per day when the child is about six weeks old. By the time children are twelve weeks old, their daily crying has decreased dramatically and averages less than one hour. This same basic pattern of crying is present among children from a wide range of cultures throughout the world. It appears to be wired into the nervous system of our species.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“He was the finest of our happy men;
He had all joys, he never thought of death;
He fiddled sometimes with his mind, and then
Shook off the tremor like a nervous wren....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)