Question

1. You are watching the latest zombie movie, Resident Evil Walking Dead.  Scary music starts to play as Carl runs into a giant pack of zombies.    
   1. What specific division of your nervous system is most active while you are watching the scary part of the movie and why?  
   2. Explain how your body reacts to the scary part of the movie using two specific examples of physiological responses triggered by the nervous system.    
   3. What division of the nervous system will help you calm down afterwards and what will be the specific changes to the responses you listed in part (b)?  

Answer 1

a. Symapthetic division of the nervous system is most active while watching he scary part of the movie. This is because the sympathetic division of the nervous system is responsible for fight or flight responses. It leads to release of epinephrine into the bloodstream which gives to increased heart rate, increased rate of breathing.

b. Symapthetic nervous system leads to increase in the breathing rate, increased heart rate. There is tightening of muscles at the base of each hair, leading to piloerection, also known as goosebumps.

c. Parasympathetic division of the nervous system will help you calm down afterwards. Parasympathetic division of the nervous system leads to decrease in the breathing rate, slowing of the heart rate. It will lead to relaxing of the muscles at the base of each hair.