When Walking Home Alone Late One Night, You Are Startled

question 7

Essay

When walking home alone late one night, you are startled by a moving shadow that you glimpse out of the corner of your eye. Which division of the autonomic nervous system mobilizes your body's defenses? What does it do? Later, when you see that the shadow is just the neighbor's cat, what division of the autonomic nervous system is acting, and how does it lessen your physiological arousal? How do these autonomic divisions differ from the other main division, the somatic?

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Definitions:

Biogeochemical Cycle

Circulating pathway of elements, such as carbon and nitrogen, involving exchange pools, storage areas, and biotic communities.

Sedimentary

Describing rocks formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at the Earth's surface, including processes of compaction and cementation.

Gaseous

Pertaining to a state of matter that is neither liquid nor solid, characterized by free-moving particles.

Autotrophs

Organisms that produce their own food from inorganic substances using light or chemical energy, such as plants and algae.