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 car can massage organs which no masseur can reach. It is the one remedy for the disorders of the great sympathetic nervous system.”
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
“I cannot exaggerate the waste of the President’s time and the consumption of his nervous vitality involved in listening to congressmen’s intercession as to local appointments. Why should the President have to have his time taken up in a discussion over ... who shall be the postmistress of Devil’s Lake, in North Dakota? How should he be able to know ... who is best fitted to fill such a place?”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)