Somatic Nervous System

Question 1

What is the somatic nervous system responsible for?

Answer 1

Conscious control of our bodies and corresponding feedback.

Question 2

What do somatic sensory nerves (afferent) detect?

Answer 2

Pain, temperature, touch and proprioception (where the body is in space)

Question 3

What is the function of somatic efferent nerves?

Answer 3

Motor to effector skeletal muscles.

Question 4

Do somatic neurones synapse once they have left the CNS?

Answer 4

No, they project directly to their target cell via a single neurone.

Question 5

How does the somatic nervous system work in general? 4 step pathway.

Answer 5

1. Starts in the brain (precentral gyrus)
2. Signal reaches the corticospinal tract where mediation of the message from brain to skeletal muscles occurs.
3. Axon: the messenger cell carries the command to contract muscles
   4: NMJ: the messenger axon cell tells muscle cells to contract at this intersection.

Question 6

What are the two types of somatic nerves and where do they arise?

Answer 6

Spinal nerves arise from the spinal cord

Cranial nerves arise directly from the brain.