http://www.ck12.org Chapter 1. Human Biology
1.43 Peripheral Nervous System
- Outline the divisions of the peripheral nervous system.
How does your brain connect to the rest of your body?
You know you have nerves in your fingers and toes because you can feel them. But how does your brain know what’s
going on in these nerves? You have a network of nerves running from your brain and spinal cord to your fingers and
toes and the rest of your body. This network is known as the peripheral nervous system.
The Peripheral Nervous System
There are other nerves in your body that are not found in the brain or spinal cord. Theperipheral nervous system
(PNS) (Figure1.77) contains all the nerves in the body that are found outside of the central nervous system. They
include nerves of the hands, arms, feet, legs, and trunk. They also include nerves of the scalp, neck, and face. Nerves
that send and receive messages to the internal organs are also part of the peripheral nervous system.
The peripheral nervous system is divided into two parts, the sensory division and the motor division. How these
divisions of the peripheral nervous system are related to the rest of the nervous system is shown below (Figure
1.78). Refer to the figure as you read more about the peripheral nervous system in the text that follows.