![]() In terms of functionality, much of the somatic nervous system can be divided into sensory pathways and motor pathways. The other physiological subdivision is the autonomic nervous system, or ANS, that controls involuntary cardiac and smooth muscle, as well as many glands of the body. One subdivision is referred to as the somatic nervous system-abbreviated SNS-it controls voluntary skeletal muscles and conveys most of our conscious sensations to the brain. Next come the physiological subdivisions of the nervous system. Physiological Subdivisions of the Nervous System This article comes directly from content in the video series How We Move: The Gross Anatomy of Motion. These nerves and ganglia together make up the peripheral nervous system. And while most neuron cell bodies are within the brain and spinal cord, there are a few isolated regions outside the central nervous system where cell bodies cluster in areas called ganglia. The cranial and spinal nerves are bundles of these axons, wrapped in connective tissue, and traveling together outside the central nervous system. The axons release chemicals called neurotransmitters, and when we talk about neuromuscular relationships, those neurotransmitters can either stimulate or inhibit the next cell or cells in the line-which would be a group of skeletal muscle cells. Most neurons have essentially three parts: first, a receiving end that has structures called dendrites that bring messages into the cell secondly, a region called the cell body, that contains the nucleus of the neuron third, an extension that is the transmitting end of the nerve cell, called an axon-or sometimes called a nerve fiber. That will make more sense if we first understand the nerve cells, called neurons. The other component of the peripheral nervous system, the ganglia, are limited areas where the nuclei of some nerve cells are found outside the central nervous system. The nerves attached to the brain are called cranial nerves, and nerves extending from the spinal cord are known as spinal nerves. So, the skull and vertebrae protect and safeguard the two organs of the central nervous system, but each of those CNS organs has nerves extending off of it that exit the cranium or leave the spine to form the peripheral nervous system. ![]() The spinal cord is connected to the brain and housed within the vertebral column-the bones and structures that make up the spine. The brain is a mass of neural tissue housed inside the cranial cavity of the skull. (Image: Alpha Tauri 3D Graphics/Shutterstock) Central and Peripheral Nervous System This isn’t in our muscles it is a coordinated series of neural pathways that we store in our brain. The brain generates defined and coordinated pathways for our collective actions that some call muscle memory. The peripheral nervous system, or PNS, on the other hand, is made up of all other nerve tissue this could be summarized as the body’s nerves and structures, called ganglia. The central nervous system, often abbreviated as the CNS, consists of two and only two organs: the brain and the spinal cord. Joseph University The anatomy of the nervous system is primarily divided into two main components: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.
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