Media, Radio, and the Nervous System: An Overview
Mass Media: Functions and Types
Mass media are systems through which information is transmitted to a broad audience. They are also known as mass communication media. Their functions include informing, providing opinions, and entertaining.
Traditional Mass Media
- Press: The oldest form of mass media. It uses written language in clear, easy-to-understand texts designed to capture the reader’s interest. It also uses fixed images and design elements, such as color and varied font sizes and types.
- Radio: Produces and transmits acoustic messages using verbal language, music, sound effects, and silence.
- Television
Adjectives
Qualifying adjectives: Highlight properties or circumstances of the beings named by nouns.
Determinative adjectives: Specify the noun and limit its extension.
The Nervous System
The basic life process of interaction consists of a series of functions that help the body to:
- Adapt to change
- Coordinate different parts of the body to work as one unit
The senses work with two interconnected systems to make this happen. These systems are:
- The nervous system
- The endocrine system
The nervous system is a processing system. It processes information that the body receives and carries out other functions, such as:
- Interpreting information received from the sensory organs
- Working out appropriate responses to this information
- Sending instructions to the effectors
- Coordinating the functions of the body’s organs
- Carrying out intellectual and mental processes
- Transmitting emotions and feelings
Neurons and Nerve Impulses
The nervous system contains billions of cells called neurons, the most specialized cells in the body. Neurons communicate with each other in a complex network. They carry information through electrical signals called nerve impulses.
Types of Neurons
- Sensory neurons: Transmit nerve impulses from receptors to the nervous system.
- Motor neurons: Transmit nerve impulses from the nervous system to effector organs.
- Interneurons: Connect sensory neurons to motor neurons.
Neurons have a cell body, which contains a nucleus and other organelles and is filled with cytoplasm. The cytoplasm forms a long structure called an axon, which ends in small structures called axon terminals. The cell body contains many small projections called dendrites.
Neurons transmit and create nerve impulses. When the neurons in sensory organs are stimulated, they transmit impulses from their dendrites to their axons.
Neurons aren’t isolated; they work together in groups. There is a small gap between the axon terminals of one neuron and the dendrites of an adjacent neuron. This gap is called a synapse.
Inside each axon terminal are small vesicles that contain chemical substances called neurotransmitters. Nerve impulses are transmitted across synapses by different neurotransmitters that have distinct effects.
When the nerve impulse in the first neuron reaches its axon terminals, the vesicles inside break and release a neurotransmitter into the synapse. This neurotransmitter binds to the membrane of the dendrites of the second neuron.
Depending on the neurotransmitter, the second neuron either continues the nerve impulse or stops it.