Question: how does your brain control your body?

Jennifer Paxton answered on 13 Mar 2018:

Oh this is a fantastic question, thank you!
It’s really good to think of the brain like a computer – it’s like the whole control centre of your body. You also have your spinal cord, which is a continuation of your brain and this goes down your back in your spine. This spinal cord sends out long ‘wires’ called nerves out to your muscles and the muscles will move when they get the single from the brain to do so. Signals will go the other way too, from the muscles back to the brain to give information about what your muscle is doing, any pain or temperature too, and the brain will decide if the muscle needs to move again. This all happens really really fast….over 100 metres per second!
The brain also controls many other parts of your body too – your heart and lungs can be controlled by your brain (although your heart does have a clever little system of its own too!)
Your brain also has a big role in producing special chemical messages called hormones out to other organs in the body and keep everything running smoothly!
The brain is an incrediblly clever organ – one which we definitely could NOT live without!