Parasympathetic Nervous System

Abstract

The parasympathetic nervous system is an anatomically defined division of the autonomic nervous system, being that part whose motor components run in cranial nerves III, VII, IX, and X and in the sacral nerves. The other division that arises from the central nervous system is the sympathetic nervous system, whose outflows are from the thoracic and upper lumbar spinal cord. The functions subserved by the parasympathetic division are diverse. It exerts its effects on autonomically controlled organs of the head, thorax, abdomen, and pelvis but not of the limbs or skin. Parasympathetic preganglionic neurons have their cell bodies in the central nervous system and make synapses in the ganglia clo..