Q.Neural system and computers share certain common features. Comment in five lines. (Hint: CPU, input-output devices).

• Both a computer and the neural system process information using specialised units that receive, process and transmit signals — in a computer this is the central processing unit (CPU), while in the body it is the network of neurons centred on the brain.
• Both systems have distinct input and output pathways: a computer takes input through devices like a keyboard and produces output on a screen, while the nervous system takes input through sense organs via afferent (sensory) fibres and produces output through efferent (motor) fibres acting on muscles and glands.
• Both rely on rapid, electrical signalling internally to carry information from input to processing to output.
• Both can store information — a computer in its memory, the nervous system in structures associated with memory in the brain. …

A computer and the human neural system, despite being built from entirely different materials, show a useful structural parallel that helps explain how the nervous system is organised.

• Just as a computer has a central processing unit that receives, processes and acts on data, the neural system has the brain (together with the spinal cord, forming the central neural system) as its central processing centre, where incoming information is interpreted and control signals are generated.
• A computer takes in information through input devices such as a keyboard or mouse; the body takes in information through its sense organs, which relay signals inward via afferent (sensory) nerve fibres.
• A computer sends out results through output devices such as a monitor or printer; the body sends out its responses through efferent (motor) nerve fibres that act on muscles and glands. …