The somatic nervous system is one of the two great parties which divides the peripheral nervous system (which is the entire nervous system found outside of the brain and spinal cord). This system contains of nerve fibers (also known as nerve cells) that connect to the brain and spinal cord with muscles controlled by conscious effort, and that carry information associated with movement under the central nervous system to the rest of the body and vice versa, via electrochemical signals. This includes voluntary or skeletal muscles and sensory receptors in the skin, which are specialized endings of the nerve fibers that detect information within the body and around it. Neurons have a body and an axon, the body of the neuron is located within the central nervous system, and the axon is imbedded within the skeletal muscles, skin or sensory organs.
What is the somatic nervous system?
The somatic nervous system carries the information about the movements and the senses from the central nervous system to the rest of the body and vice versa, via electricochemical signals. It is formed by the peripheral nerve fibers that carry sensory information (from the skin and the sense organs such as the skin) to the central nervous system and the motor nerve fibers of the central nervous system, that then travel to the skeletal muscles and invoke a response.
Inside the somatic nervous system, there are mainly two types of neurons found; sensory neurons and motor neurons.
The sensory neurons (or afferent neurons) carry information from the nerves to the central nervous system. The motor neurons (or efferent neurons) instead carry information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles fibers in the body. The nerve signals, represented by electrochemical impulses, travel along the extensions of the neurons, that are to be transmitted from the brain or the spinal cord to the skin, organ senses or muscles and hence from here to the central nervous system.
What function does the somatic nervous system serve?
The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma, which translates to body. In fact, the somatic nervous system takes care of the purely physical aspects of the human body, it is responsible for the movement of voluntary muscles and the processing of sensory information associated with external stimuli, including those related to the senses of hearing, touch, and sight. In fact the primary role of the somatic nervous system is to connect the central nervous system to the organs, muscles and skin.
The somatic nervous system is also associated with the involuntary movement also known as reflex arc, in this case the muscles move involuntarily without receiving a command from the brain to do so. This phenomenon occurs when a nerve pathway connects directly to the spinal cord. An example of this is the instinct to withdraw your hand after coming in contact or touch a hot object, or involuntary movement of the leg, when a certain specific point of the knee is stimulated.
