How to Use autonomic nervous system in a Sentence

autonomic nervous system

noun
  • This is one half of your autonomic nervous system, all of which works without your needing to think about it.
    — Anne R. Crecelius, The Conversation, 20 June 2019
  • Plus, a cat's purr might help regulate the autonomic nervous system.
    — Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2025
  • Your heart is connected with your pancreas via the autonomic nervous system.
    — Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, 7 Feb. 2018
  • The autonomic nervous system is comprised of all the things that the nervous system does without our awareness.
    — Dr. Keith Roach, oregonlive, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Cold water on your face can calm your autonomic nervous system, decreasing your heart rate and slowing your breathing.
    — Kathryn Watson, SELF, 30 Nov. 2022
  • This is the largest nerve of the autonomic nervous system - extending from the brain to the colon - and plays a key role in heart, lung and digestive function.
    — Carrie Dennett, chicagotribune.com, 11 July 2018
  • But news of events like this week’s crash can keep the sympathetic part of our autonomic nervous system activated.
    — Nathan Diller, USA TODAY, 31 Jan. 2025
  • Nerve fibers send a message about lower salt levels to your brain, and the autonomic nervous system responds by constricting the blood vessels.
    — Guy German, Binghamton University, Discover Magazine, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Nerve fibers send a message about lower salt levels to your brain, and the autonomic nervous system responds by constricting the blood vessels.
    — Bronwyn Thompson, New Atlas, 12 May 2025
  • Her main finding was endocrine dysfunction in what’s known as the autonomic nervous system, which primes people’s fight-or-flight response.
    — Ariana Eunjung Cha, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Apr. 2022
  • When your skin senses a drop in temperature, your autonomic nervous system springs into action.
    — Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Chewing and swallowing activate the vagus nerve, which can help calm the autonomic nervous system.
    — Nicole Cain, Harvard Business Review, 23 Oct. 2024
  • No changes in the autonomic nervous system or skeletomotor actions are, in and of themselves, meaningful as fear.
    — Dean Mobbs, Scientific American, 20 Sep. 2019
  • Some researchers suggest that it may be related to the effect of the high temperatures on the autonomic nervous system.
    — Brian Mastroianni, Health, 28 Jan. 2025
  • The autonomic nervous system also fulfills a pivotal role in stress tolerance.
    — Jeff Gaudette, Outside Online, 3 June 2014
  • He was knighted in 1975 for his work in researching the failures of the autonomic nervous system.
    — Chris Chavez, SI.com, 4 Mar. 2018
  • The autonomic nervous system shifts from a state of calm engagement to one of defensive mobilization.
    — Amy Cuddy, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2026
  • The other half of your autonomic nervous system is the sympathetic nervous system.
    — Anne R. Crecelius, The Conversation, 20 June 2019
  • Therefore, research suggests that singing, even loudly, may activate our autonomic nervous system by massaging the muscles at the back of our throat and ears.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2023
  • Octopuses have a fairly unusual autonomic nervous system, with many neurons present in the tentacles rather than the brain.
    — Daniel Holz, Discover Magazine, 9 June 2010
  • Other studies since then have demonstrated that just looking at pictures of natural scenes can change the way a person’s autonomic nervous system responds to stress.
    — Richard Taylor, Smithsonian, 31 Mar. 2017
  • This sudden weakening of the heart muscles likely occurs because the autonomic nervous system is out of balance, Reynolds says.
    — Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 14 Feb. 2023
  • The only way the recovery process can take place is through activation of the parasympathetic aspect of your autonomic nervous system.
    — Dana Santas, CNN, 30 June 2021
  • The fruit's essential oil is thought to affect the autonomic nervous system activity, which plays an integral role in the mind-body connection.
    — Cynthia Sass, Mph, Health.com, 15 Dec. 2021
  • Just the presence of indoor plants can lower human stress levels, research shows, and one study found that actively caring for plants calmed the autonomic nervous system and lowered blood pressure.
    — Zee Krstic, Good Housekeeping, 22 Nov. 2022
  • Breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure are all connected to our autonomic nervous system, which regulates the unconscious bodily functions that keep us alive.
    — Tom Simonite, WIRED, 13 Nov. 2017
  • But purposeful breathing can trigger your parasympathetic system, or the part of your autonomic nervous system that opposes the fight-flight-freeze response.
    — Emily Shiffer, SELF, 3 Nov. 2020
  • Both sensations set off a reaction in the body’s autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary actions like breathing.
    — Popular Science, 18 Dec. 2019
  • The autonomic nervous system regulates it.
    — Carrie Madormo, Verywell Health, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Functions like breathing, blinking, your heart pumping or your pupils constricting in the sun all happen without your needing to consciously control them, thanks to the autonomic nervous system.
    — Guy German, Binghamton University, Discover Magazine, 31 Aug. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'autonomic nervous system.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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