central nervous system
Sign in to savemain information-processing organs of the nervous system, consisting of the brain, spinal cord, and meninges
AI overview
Your central nervous system is made up of your brain, spinal cord, and the protective membranes surrounding them, and it serves as your body's main command center for processing information. It matters because it controls your thoughts, movements, and bodily functions by receiving signals from throughout your body and sending instructions back out.
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Article
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is named so because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all parts of the bodies of bilaterally symmetric and triploblastic animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and diploblasts. It is a structure composed of nervous tissue positioned along the rostral (nose end) to caudal (tail end) axis of the body and may have an enlarged section at the rostral end which is a brain. Only arthropods, cephalopods and vertebrates have a true brain, though precursor structures exist in onychophorans, gastropods and lancelets.
The rest of this article exclusively discusses the vertebrate central nervous system, which is radically distinct from all other animals.