Overview
Your nervous system is a complex, highly specialized network of cells and tissues. It organizes, explains, and directs interactions between you and the world around you. The nervous system controls:
- Sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch (your five senses).
- Voluntary functions, like raising your arm or picking up a glass, and involuntary functions, like your breath and heartbeat.
- The ability to think and reason. The nervous system allows you to be conscious and have thoughts, memories, and language.
The nervous system is divided into the brain and spinal cord (called the central nervous system, or CNS) and the nerves that control voluntary and involuntary movements (called the peripheral nervous system or PNS).