Autonomic nervous systems

Abstract

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) serves to transmit precise and well-directed information from the brain to selective organs. This information adapts the organs to changes in behavior that are commanded by the brain. Much can be learned in the way the ANS is functioning from the study on how the biological clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), prepares every 24 h the physiology of the body via the ANS to the coming changes in behavior. Hereto, the SCN has indirect connections with the motor neurons of the parasympathetic and sympathetic system. These interactions are proposed to be characteristic for the way also other brain regions such as the amygdala and preoptic area may affect the ANS. Information what is dearly missed at this moment are about the possibilities of the ANS to talk back to the CNS. Especially, information is missing on how visceral information may be transmitted from spinal sensory centers to the rest of the brain while also only in general terms can be known how ascending information of the nucleus tractus solitarius reaches higher centers in the brain.