The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is part of the nervous system responsible for coordinating actions of transmitting signals to and from different parts of the body. It has been implied as “central” because it incorporates activity across the whole organism.

The Role of the Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system and is usually located in the head, commonly close to the sensory organs. The brain is the most intricate organ in a vertebrate’s body since it is highly involved in the success of the body’s functional abilities.

In physiology, the brain has the centralized control over the other organs and provoke muscle activities by sending chemicals around the body called hormones. This control allows expeditious and well-coordinated reactions to any physical influences resulting to different emotions, speech, behaviour and other sensory responses. Other types of responsiveness such as reflexes are conciliated by the spinal cord, also called the peripheral ganglia.

The Spinal Cord

The spinal cord is a tubular bundle of nervous and support cells extending from the brainstem, specifically in the medulla oblongata, a neuron mass responsible for involuntary functions of the body including respiratory influences such as breathing, to the lower spine also referred to as the lumbar region. In humans, the spinal cord is located in the vertebral column, also referred to as the backbone or spine.

The brain commands the body’s motor influences through the sensory information driven by the sensory tissues toward the spinal cord and back to the brain. The spinal cord also circulates control on certain reflexive responses and generate more composite movements such as walking. But even without instruction from the brain, the spinal nerves systematize all the necessary movements of the muscles to perform a physical activity such as walking. The brain only starts any command to stop or start any process if it is relatively visible in its path.

Working Together

The brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system. Together, this sophisticated system is a part of everything that we do, whether we choose to do things like thinking to talking, walking to running, or our body does things automatically such as breathing. The central nervous system is highly involved with the way we feel, we see, we touch, we smell and a lot of more important things such as our thoughts, our emotions and our behaviour.

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