Nervous System Like a Computer

“How is the nervous system like a computer, and how is it different?”

A computer codes information as binary code while the nervous system codes

information by spikes of voltage changes which transmits the information. The only similarity in

this transmission of information is that they both use electricity but the type of the electricity

they use is completely different. The brain uses chemicals to transmit information while the

computer uses electricity. Electrical signals travel at high speeds in the nervous system while

they travel even faster through the computer by wires. They are similar in that both have to have

stimuli, processing and then a response. If you touch your arm, this stimulus goes to your brain

and is processed and then your brain will send a response. You touch the computer keyboard, it

gets processed and produces typing. Also wires in the computer is like the neurons in which both

carries the information around the system.

One way they are not alike is that they have different chemicals to help in functioning.

Wires don’t have these chemicals to function. Also you can turn the computer on and off when

you want to but the nervous system is always on. The computer and the nervous system have a

memory that can grow. You can add more chips to make the memory grow in a computer.

Memories in the brain grow by stronger synaptic connections.

The computer can do complex tasks that are difficult for the brain. At the same time, the

brain does some multitasking such as the brain controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure

at the same time preforming a mental task. Both the computer and nervous system can be

damaged. While it is easier to fix a computer by getting new parts, there isn’t any parts for the

brain. Both a computer and a brain can get "sick." A computer can get a "virus" and there are

diseases that affect the brain. The brain

has "built-in backup systems" by the way of pathways in the brain if damaged. Sometimes...