Somatic nervous system
The somatic nervous system (SNS) is made up of nerves that link the brain and spinal cord to voluntary or skeletal muscles that are under conscious control as well as to skin sensory receptors. Specialized nerve fiber ends called sensory receptors are responsible for detecting information within and outside of the body.
| Somatic nervous system | |
|---|---|
1. (Brain) Precentral gyrus: the origin of nerve signals initiating movement.
2. (Cross section of Spinal cord) Corticospinal tract: Mediator of message from brain to skeletal muscles. 3. Axon: the efferent nerve fiber that carries the command to contract muscles. 4. Neuromuscular junction: muscle cells are stimulated to contract at this intersection | |
| Details | |
| Part of | Peripheral nervous system |
| Identifiers | |
| FMA | 9904 |
| Anatomical terminology | |
The somatic nervous system, or voluntary nervous system is the part of the peripheral nervous system associated with the voluntary control of body movements via skeletal muscles. The movements of our arms, legs, and other body parts are among the functions that the somatic nervous system is in charge of and that we can consciously control. The somatic nervous system consists of nerves carrying afferent nerve fibers, which relay sensation from the body to the central nervous system (CNS), and nerves carrying efferent nerve fibers, which relay motor commands from the CNS to stimulate muscle contraction.
The a- of afferent and the e- of efferent correspond to the prefixes ad- (to, toward) and ex- (out of).