Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
central nervous system \central nervous system\ n. the portion of the vertebrate nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord; -- abbreviated CNS.
Syn: CNS.
Wiktionary
n. (context neuroanatomy English) In vertebrates, that part of the nervous system comprising the brain, brainstem and spinal cord.
WordNet
n. the portion of the vertebrate nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord [syn: CNS, systema nervosum centrale]
Wikipedia
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord. The central nervous system is so named because it integrates information it receives from, and coordinates and influences the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterally symmetric animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish—and it contains the majority of the nervous system. Many consider the retina and the optic nerve (2nd cranial nerve), as well as the olfactory nerves (1st) and olfactory epithelium as parts of the CNS, synapsing directly on brain tissue without intermediate ganglia. Following this classification the olfactory epithelium is the only central nervous tissue in direct contact with the environment, which opens up for therapeutic treatments. The CNS is contained within the dorsal body cavity, with the brain housed in the cranial cavity and the spinal cord in the spinal canal. In vertebrates, the brain is protected by the skull, while the spinal cord is protected by the vertebrae, both enclosed in the meninges.
Usage examples of "central nervous system".
According to Stebbins, the development of pollination mechanisms in milkweeds and orchids is an example of minor advances in grade, while the appearance of the digestive tube, central nervous system, elaborate sense organs, vertebrate limbs, and elaborate social behavior represent major advances.
Sometimes damage to a portion of the central nervous system results in the appearance of an abnormal reflex.
Mustafa was trying to move, but his muscles were drained of blood and oxygen, and were not listening to the commands that came through the central nervous system.
Its central nervous system consists of a few ganglia, no more than about 20,000 neurons in all.
But the central nervous system installed by the Indowy allowed me to get in touch with the .
Sometimes even regeneration tanks wouldn't work on central nervous system injuries.
Something was added to impulses going out from the central nervous system.
People like you and me, who'll agree in writing that if we're disabled or mortally wounded, our central nervous system—.
He could feel his central nervous system wavering back and forth between agony and euphoria.
It's neuroinvasive - that means it travels along the nerve fibers and invades the central nervous system.
He wore a bloody bandage around his head, and from his awkward movement he had something badly wrong with his legs or his central nervous system.
That would be amazing, even allowing for the speed and efficiency of a Hymenopt's central nervous system.
The three million candles of energy turned the entire world into the face of the sun, and then the energy overload invaded the man's central nervous system along the trigeminal nerve, which runs from the back of the eye along the base of the brain, branching out through the neural network that controls the voluntary muscles.