Wiktionary
n. (context neuroanatomy English) The part of the nervous system which is not the central nervous system.
WordNet
n. the section of the nervous system lying outside the brain and spinal cord [syn: systema nervosum periphericum]
Wikipedia
The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the part of the nervous system that consists of the nerves and ganglia on the outside of the brain and spinal cord. The main function of the PNS is to connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the limbs and organs, essentially serving as a communication relay going back and forth between the brain and spinal cord with the rest of the body. Unlike the CNS, the PNS is not protected by the bone of spine and skull, or by the blood–brain barrier, which leaves it exposed to toxins and mechanical injuries. The peripheral nervous system is mainly divided into the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. In the somatic nervous system, the cranial nerves are part of the PNS with the exception of cranial nerve II, the optic nerve, along with the retina. The second cranial nerve is not a true peripheral nerve but a tract of the diencephalon. Cranial nerve ganglia originate in the CNS. However, the remaining ten cranial nerve axons extend beyond the brain and are therefore considered part of the PNS. The Autonomic nervous system is an involuntary control of smooth muscle. The connection between CNS and organs allows the system to be in two different functional states: sympathetic and parasympathetic.
Usage examples of "peripheral nervous system".
I have already hinted, in my account of the reductive steps the group employed, that a variety of experimentally or theoretically inconvenient processes that also occurred during the behaviour, such as a contribution of the peripheral nervous system, and some of the polysynaptic inputs onto the motor neuron, were dissected away and no longer taken into consideration.
Each of these spinal cells will control a number of neurons in the peripheral nervous system (the portion outside the brain and spinal cord) and each neuron will control a number of muscle fibers.
The nerve cords represent the first beginnings of what is called the central nervous system, and the nerves make up the peripheral nervous system.
The first aerobrake has deployed, detonating high overhead: I switch my peripheral nervous system back on and experience a shivery high of visceral fear.
A security guard would have gone for the floor at that point, but Rachel managed to restrain herself even though the adrenaline was flowing, and the upgrades installed in her parasympathetic peripheral nervous system were boosting her toward combat readiness.
Nanosites embedded in your brain, mediating its interchanges with the peripheral nervous system.
Some strains stay in the peripheral nervous system, but other strains head like a bullet for the central nervous system and take up permanent residence in the cells of the brain-coiling around the brainstem like a serpent around a tree.
Some strains stay in the peripheral nervous system, but other strains head like a bullet for the central nervous system and take up permanent residence in the cells of the brain -- coiling around the brainstem like a serpent around a tree.
Another example of this is alcoholic polyneuropathy, a disease of the peripheral nervous system characterized by (among other things) numbness in the toes and fingers, a burning sensation on the soles of the feet, and tenderness of the calf muscles.
The toxin worked by moving through the blood and lymphatic systems to the peripheral nervous system.
She could not feel her limbs, but she could feel her heart beating, thudding heavily in her chest as adrenaline struggled uselessly with her unresponsive peripheral nervous system.
For what it's worth, his seemed concentrated in the motor regions and peripheral nervous system.
Then we graft two things into the site of the injury: one is some of the patient's own peripheral nervous system tissue and the other substance we graft is some embryonic central nervous system cells.
The twitching was the final reconnect with the peripheral nervous system.
Her peripheral nervous system might have been boosted, but for this sort of speed, it relied on anaerobic respiration, and she was exhausting her reserves frighteningly fast.