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Encyclopedia entry: nervous system
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to the Body
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to the Body 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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nervous system
There are probably more than 100 000 million nerve cells in the body. The nervous system is the sum total of all these, together with their nerve fibres, which ramify throughout the body, and the various supporting components of nervous tissue.
The nervous system is subdivided into the
central nervous system
(CNS) and the
peripheral nervous system
(PNS). Basically, the
brain
and
spinal cord
form the CNS, while the rest is PNS. The CNS is well protected inside the skull and vertebral column. The PNS is essentially the
nerves
, which run through most of the tissues of the body. The function of the nervous system is to collect information from the body and the outside ...