I mean, you can easily find out that Galen was the pioneer, correcting Aristotle; and a bunch of other intersting historical things. But WHO exactly decided to establish this partition, WHEN, and for WHAT reason the spinal cord was clustered in the same overarching category with the brain, whereas both were distinct from the Peripheral Nervous System?
The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. The brain plays a central role in the control of most bodily functions, including awareness, movements, sensations, thoughts, speech, and memory. Some reflex movements can occur via spinal cord pathways without the participation of brain structures. The spinal cord is connected to a section of the brain called the brainstem and runs through the spinal canal. Cranial nerves exit the brainstem. Nerve roots exit the spinal cord to both sides of the body. The spinal cord carries signals (messages) back and forth between the brain and the peripheral nerves.
Look into Swanson 2000, What is the brain, Tins 23: 519-527. If you want a more extended overview look into my chapter 12 Cranial Nerves and cervical spinal nerves in E.Marani, C. heida, Head and Neck , Morphology, models and function. Springer 2018. Problems to get it send me an e-mail. Enrico Marani
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