Unpacking the anatomy: Basics of the Nervous system

The Nervous System (NS) is one of the main systems of communication within the body. 

Its role is to gather information through sensory input, integrate the information in the central part of the NS and then create a response through motor output. The Nervous system is a complicated system that interacts with all other tissues in the body and controls voluntary and involuntary motion.  

This means that we are able to control some of the movement our body executes, especially through control of the skeletal muscles. However there is a large portion of the nervous system that is automatic and happens without our conscious control such as movement through the digestive system, circulatory system, and some proprioceptive mechanisms in the skeletal muscles which are largely found in postural muscles of the back. 

The central nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord. Sensory information from outside the central NS travels towards the spinal cord via spinal nerves then through the dorsal rami to enter the spinal cord. The stimuli must then be integrated through the central NS to create a motor response; regardless if it is voluntary or involuntary the motor output  will exit the spinal cord via the ventral rami and travel to its target tissue. 

In Osteopathic assessment and treatment our goal is to work with the sensory side of the nervous system by reducing the amount of abnormal stimuli going to the central NS, integrating those changes to reduce the amount of abnormal motor responses.