The endocrine system is tightly linked with the other major signaling system of the body, the nervous system. Synaptic signaling, the signaling of the nervous system, involves these cells called neurons, which you can see an example of here. And these neurons will actually transmit electrical signals through their body. When they reach the target, essentially what happens is that electric signal gets translated into a chemical signal and released to the other cell as a chemical signal. We call this connection between the two cells the synapse, and the cell that has the electric signal going through it, that's my little lightning bolt for an electric signal, is going to translate that signal into neurotransmitters. These chemicals it will release that will cross this very small gap known as the synapse. And they'll bind to receptors on the cell it's trying to communicate in nature.

Now, the parts of the endocrine and nervous system that are linked together are known as neuroendocrine elements. And so, neuroendocrine signaling is going to be when neuronal signals cause hormone secretion. Right? So instead of just simply releasing some neurotransmitters to be picked up by another cell, this is going to involve hormone secretion as part of the endocrine system. This is going to be the type of signaling that links those two communication systems in the body. And the signaling molecules it's going to release, we call neurohormones. These are hormones that are produced by neuroendocrine cells or cells that are involved in nervous signaling and endocrine signaling or synaptic signaling and endocrine signaling, however you want to think of it.

Now, the nervous system and the endocrine system are really going to be linked together in these two organs or brain regions and a gland, really, I should say, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. These guys are going to be the major players of the endocrine system, and the hypothalamus is going to be a major player in the nervous system as well. So over here you can see the major endocrine glands. And here you can see, behind me, you can see the nervous system. And here is kind of a zoomed-in image of a person's brain. And so, the hypothalamus sits right above the pituitary gland. And, again, the hypothalamus is going to be that major connection between the nervous system and the endocrine system. It's a very special brain region. It'll actually have a hand in a lot of other functions too. But, one of its main jobs is connecting the nervous system and the endocrine system. And that's because, in part, it is super involved in homeostasis.

So with that, let's flip the page and get into the nitty-gritty details.