Central Nervous System

The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except radially symmetric animals such as sponges and jellyfish. It contains the majority of the nervous system and consists of the brain and the spinal cord. Some classifications also include the retina and the cranial nerves in the CNS. Together with the peripheral nervous system, it has a fundamental role in the control of behavior. The CNS is contained within the dorsal cavity, with the brain in the cranial cavity and the spinal cord in the spinal cavity. In vertebrates, the brain is protected by the skull, while the spinal cord is protected by the vertebrae, and both are enclosed in the meninges.

Read more about Central Nervous System:  Development, Evolution, Diseases of The Central Nervous System

Famous quotes containing the words nervous system, central, nervous and/or system:

    A car can massage organs which no masseur can reach. It is the one remedy for the disorders of the great sympathetic nervous system.
    Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)

    The central paradox of motherhood is that while our children become the absolute center of our lives, they must also push us back out in the world.... But motherhood that can narrow our lives can also broaden them. It can make us focus intensely on the moment and invest heavily in the future.
    Ellen Goodman (20th century)

    Toward education marriage nervous breakdown, operation, teaching
    school, and learning to be mad, in a dream—what is this
    life?
    Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)

    Those words freedom and opportunity do not mean a license to climb upwards by pushing other people down. Any paternalistic system that tries to provide for security for everyone from above only calls for an impossible task and a regimentation utterly uncongenial to the spirit of our people.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)