Abstract
The brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system. The brain is the part of the central nervous system that is housed in the cranium/skull. It consists of the brain stem, diencephalon, cerebellum, and cerebrum. At the foramen magnum, the highest cervical segment of the spinal cord is continuous with the lowest level of the medulla of the brain stem. The spinal nerves from the sacral, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical levels of the spinal cord form the lower part of the peripheral nervous system and record general sensations of pain, temperature touch, and pressure. The 12 cranial nerves attached to the brain form the upper part of the peripheral nervous system and record general sensations of pain, temperature touch, and pressure, but in addition we now find the presence of the special senses of smell, vision, hearing, balance, and taste. The blood supply to the brain originates from the first major arterial branches from the heart insuring that over 20% of the entire supply of oxygenated blood flows directly into the brain.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Denny-Brown D. Handbook of neurological examination and case recording. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 1957.
Edelman ER, Warach J. Medical progress—magnetic resonance imaging. N Eng J Med. 1993;328:708, 716, 785–91.
Greenberg JO, editor. Neuroimaging: a companion to Adams and Victor’s principles of neurology. 2nd ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill; 1999. p. 821.
Johanson DC, Wong K. Lucy’s legacy; the quest for human origins. New York: Harmony Books; 2009.
Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM. Principles of neurosciences. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill; 2000.
Marcus EM, Jacobson S, Sabin T. Integrated neuroscience. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2013.
Martin JH, Brust JCM, Hilal S. Imaging the living brain. In: Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Niedermeyer E, Lopes Da Silva F, editors. 1991. 1999.
Nolte J. The human brain. St Louis: Mosby; 1990.
Tatersall I. Human origins; out of Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2009;106:16018–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jacobson, S., Marcus, E.M., Pugsley, S. (2018). Introduction to the Central Nervous System. In: Neuroanatomy for the Neuroscientist. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60187-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60187-8_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60185-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60187-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)