Nervous+System

The Nervous System What makes us who we are? People don't come pre-assembled, but are glued together by life. And each time one of us is constructed, a different result occurs. One reason for this is that we all start out with different sets of genes; another is that we have different experiences. What's interesting about this formulation is not that nature and nurture both contribute to who we are, but that they actually speak the same language. They both ultimately achieve their mental and behavioral effects by shaping the synaptic organization of the brain. The particular patterns of synaptic connections in an individual's brain, and the information encoded by these connections, are the keys to who the person is. Just how do genes affect individual behavior? In the simplest terms, they do so by making proteins that shape the way neurons get wired together. Synaptic Self by Joseph LeDoux

Brain

Spinal Cord

Nervous Tissue

Senses