Q.Differentiate between the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) in terms of their components and general function.

[!TLDR] CNS = brain + spinal cord, the integrating/command centre; PNS = all nerves outside the CNS (cranial + spinal), carrying signals to and from it. [!ANSWER] CNS (brain, spinal cord) integrates and issues comm …

The central nervous system (CNS) is made up of the brain and the spinal cord, both enclosed and protected within bone (skull and vertebral column respectively); it is the body's main integrating and command centre, receiving sensory information, processing/interpreting it, and generating the appropriate motor response. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is made up of all the nerve fibres and ganglia lying outside the CNS — chiefly the twelve pairs of cranial nerves and the thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves — and its role is purely communicative: carrying sens …

Separate 'where processing happens' (CNS) from 'how signals travel to and fr …

Do not describe the PNS as doing any independent 'thinking' — it conducts signals; the actual integration happens within the CNS (or, for simple reflex …