Anatomy Lecture Notes Section three: Nervous System
Anatomy Lecture Notes Section three: Nervous System
The Central Nervous System: The Brain and the Spinal Cord
The nervous system is anatomically and functionally divided into two parts, the Central Nervous System (the brain and the spinal cord) and the Peripheral Nervous System (the ganglia, and twelve pairs of cranial nerves, plus thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves). The Peripheral Nervous System can be further delineated into the Somatic Nervous System which integrates control over skeletal muscle, and the Autonomic Nervous System which for the most part automatically regulates vital internal organs and systems.
The Brain
The Brain
In anatomy, we can divide the brain into six parts in terms of information processing:
One. Cerebrum
Two. Diencephalon
Three. Midbrain
Four. Cerebellum
Five. Pons
Six. Medulla oblongata
To the right is a mid-sagittal section of the brain showing various regions and the six major divisions (red circled numbers) of the human brain from the highest to lowest level of information processing.