8.4.1 Nervous and hormonal control in animals Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Biology A (Salters-Nuffield), Unit 8

The 20 questions

1. Which statement correctly contrasts nervous and hormonal communication?

   • Hormones travel along axons while nerves travel in the blood, which is why hormone signals are so fast
   • Both use only electrical signals, so there is no chemical difference between the two forms of communication
   • Nervous responses are slow and long lasting, whereas hormonal responses are fast and brief in their effects
   • Nervous responses are fast and short lived along neurones; hormonal responses are slower, longer lasting and carried in blood

2. Which gland releases adrenaline into the blood?

   • Adrenal medulla, which secretes adrenaline in response to nervous stimulation during stress or exercise
   • Pituitary gland only, which releases a range of tropic hormones that control other endocrine glands
   • Pancreas, which releases insulin and glucagon in response to changes in blood glucose concentration
   • Thyroid, which releases thyroxine to control the basal metabolic rate of the body over long periods

3. Which gland releases insulin into the blood?

   • Adrenal cortex, which releases steroid hormones such as cortisol and aldosterone into the blood
   • Ovary, which releases oestrogen and progesterone to regulate the menstrual cycle in females
   • Pancreas, through the islets of Langerhans, which contain the beta cells that secrete insulin
   • Thyroid gland, which releases thyroxine and controls the metabolic rate of cells in the body

4. Which structure in the brain acts as a link between the nervous and endocrine systems?

   • Medulla oblongata only, which controls breathing and heart rate but does not influence any gland
   • Corpus callosum, which connects the two cerebral hemispheres and passes information between them
   • Cerebellum, which co-ordinates balance and the smooth movement of the limbs and the body
   • Hypothalamus, which controls the pituitary gland, linking nervous signals to hormone release

5. Which gland is controlled directly by the hypothalamus through nerve fibres and hormones?

   • Pituitary gland, which is controlled through nerve fibres and releasing hormones from the hypothalamus
   • Skin, which is controlled by the hypothalamus only through the sweat glands in the dermis
   • Liver, which releases glucose into the blood in response to a direct nervous signal from the medulla
   • Kidney only, which is controlled by the hypothalamus only through the production of urine

6. Why is hormonal communication described as widespread?

   • Hormones travel only through nerve fibres, which spread the signal to every part of the body
   • Hormones only act on one specific cell, which means their effects are limited to a single organ
   • Hormones cannot leave the bloodstream, so they act only on the cells lining the blood vessels
   • Hormones travel in the blood to all cells, but only target cells with the correct receptors respond

7. Which statement describes a key feature of a nervous response?

   • It uses hormones in the bloodstream, which carry the signal from the brain to the effector
   • It is short-lived and targeted to a specific effector, such as a particular muscle or gland
   • It takes minutes to begin, because the signal must first be carried by the blood to the target organ
   • It is widespread and affects many organs at once, since the nerve impulse spreads through the whole body

8. A student records that heart rate increases within 1 second of seeing a danger. Which system is most likely responsible for this rapid change?

   • Nervous system, acting through sympathetic nerves to the SAN, which speeds up the heart rate quickly
   • Insulin acting on the liver to release glucose, which takes several minutes to change the heart rate
   • Thyroid hormone acting over several days to raise the basal metabolic rate of the whole body
   • Oestrogen acting on the uterus, which changes the rate of the heart only in the later stages of pregnancy

9. Which statement describes the effect of a long-lasting hormonal response?

   • It has no effect on metabolism, since hormones act only on the nerves that carry signals to the muscles
   • It produces a sustained change, such as growth or metabolic adjustment, over a long period
   • It only changes the colour of the skin, which is the only long-lasting effect that hormones have on the body
   • It produces an immediate effect that stops in milliseconds, once the hormone is removed from the bloodstream

10. Which statement describes the role of the pituitary gland in co-ordinating the endocrine system?

    • It secretes insulin into the pancreas, which then acts on the other glands to control their output
    • It stores glycogen for the liver, which releases glucose into the blood when the pituitary signals it
    • It carries nerve impulses to the muscles, which allows the pituitary to control movement directly
    • It secretes hormones that control other endocrine glands, such as the thyroid and adrenal cortex

11. Why is the response to adrenaline described as fast but short lived?

    • Adrenaline is stored permanently in target cells, which keeps the response going for a long time after release
    • Adrenaline is broken down relatively quickly, so its effect falls away once it is no longer released
    • Adrenaline cannot enter the blood, so its effect is confined to the gland that produces it
    • Adrenaline causes permanent changes to nerve cells, which then continue to respond long after the hormone has gone

12. A student compares the two systems. Which feature is shared by nervous and hormonal control?

    • Both are restricted to the head, where the brain and the pituitary gland are the main control centres
    • Both use chemical or electrical signals to co-ordinate responses in the body
    • Both act only on the skin, which is the only organ that responds to nervous and hormonal signals
    • Both use electrical impulses along axons, which is why both systems can carry signals over long distances

13. A scientist removes a gland and observes that blood glucose rises after a meal. Which gland is most likely removed?

    • Adrenal medulla, which secretes adrenaline and is responsible for raising blood glucose during stress
    • Salivary glands, which secrete digestive enzymes into the mouth and have a role in the uptake of glucose
    • Pituitary gland only, which is the gland that controls the uptake of glucose into all body cells
    • Pancreas, since without it insulin is not secreted, so blood glucose is not lowered after a meal

14. Which feature of a hormone allows it to affect only certain cells?

    • It is always stored in the nucleus, which means only the cell nucleus can respond to the hormone signal
    • It is destroyed by the target cell, which means only the cells that destroy it can be affected by it
    • It is able to pass through the cell walls of all plant cells, which limits its effect to plant tissues
    • The target cell has a specific receptor that binds the hormone, so only those cells respond

15. Which pair correctly matches a control system with a feature?

    • Hormonal: fast and short lived, since the signal travels along the axons of the nerves
    • Hormonal: transmitted along axons, which carry chemical messengers directly to the target cells
    • Nervous: rapid, localised, electrical, since the signal travels along neurones to a specific effector
    • Nervous: slow and long lasting, since the signal travels through the blood to reach its target

16. Which evaluation is most appropriate for the claim that hormones always act faster than nerves?

    • Incorrect, because nerve impulses are typically faster than hormonal responses, which travel in the blood
    • Correct, because nerves never produce any response that is fast enough to be measured in the body
    • Incorrect, because hormones never leave the gland, so they cannot act on any target cell at all
    • Correct, because hormones are always faster, since chemical signals move more quickly than electrical impulses

17. A patient has lower than normal levels of a hormone produced by the thyroid gland. Which symptom would be most consistent with this?

    • Increased heart rate in response to danger, since the thyroid gland controls the adrenaline response
    • Immediate contraction of all skeletal muscles, since the thyroid gland controls the motor neurones directly
    • Increased metabolic rate and weight loss, since thyroid hormones are normally reduced by the body's own feedback
    • Reduced metabolic rate and tiredness, since thyroid hormones normally raise the basal metabolic rate

18. Which statement describes how nerve and hormonal systems can co-operate in a single response?

    • Hormones stop nerve impulses in all cases, which is why the two systems are described as opposing controllers
    • A nerve stimulus can cause hormone release, which then produces a longer-lasting response
    • Nerves produce hormones in the myelin sheath, which then acts on the target organ in the same response
    • Nerves and hormones never act together, since each system controls a different set of organs in the body

19. Which of these is a correct example of a hormone acting on target cells over a long period?

    • Thyroxine controlling the basal metabolic rate, which acts over a long period in many tissues
    • Adrenaline during a sudden fright, which acts for only a few seconds in the body
    • Acetylcholine at a neuromuscular junction, which acts for a fraction of a second at each synapse
    • Noradrenaline at a synapse in the brain, which acts within milliseconds of its release

20. Which evaluation is best for an experiment that removes the pituitary gland and then measures the response of other endocrine glands?

    • The experiment shows that the pituitary has no role in endocrine control, since removing it changed nothing
    • The experiment shows the pituitary is made of nerve cells, since removing it altered the response of the glands
    • The experiment proves that the nervous system is the only controller of the endocrine glands in the body
    • The experiment could show the pituitary is needed to stimulate other glands, but a control group would be needed to confirm this

Related quizzes

• Why animals need a circulation and the role of water Quiz · 1.1.1 · 20 questions
• Gas exchange surfaces and Fick's Law Quiz · 2.1.1 · 20 questions
• Common features of living cells Quiz · 3.1.1 · 20 questions
• Biodiversity, endemism and threats to variety of life Quiz · 4.1.1 · 20 questions
• Ecosystems, communities, populations and biotic and abiotic factors Quiz · 5.1.1 · 20 questions
• Time of death, decomposition and forensic entomology Quiz · 6.1.1 · 20 questions
• Structure and function of blood vessels Quiz · 1.1.2 · 20 questions
• Cell membrane structure and the fluid mosaic model Quiz · 2.1.2 · 20 questions
• Eukaryotic ultrastructure and electron micrographs Quiz · 3.1.2 · 20 questions
• Measuring biodiversity: heterozygosity and diversity index Quiz · 4.1.2 · 20 questions