Autonomic nervous system anatomy

Anatomy of the Autonomic Nervous System Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Divisions... 

This section provides a review of the anatomy and physiology of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) accompanied by a brief description of some of the important drugs which modify its actions. A summary of the interaction between the immune system and the ANS is also included. An extensive discussion of the anatomy and physiology of the ANS can be found in the Primer on the Autonomic Nervous System (Robertson, 2004). Detailed information on the pharmacology of the ANS can be found in Goodman Gilman s The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (Brunton et al., 2006). 

This classic in the field of pharmacology provides detailed information on anatomy and functions of the autonomic nervous system. Although primarily concerned with drugs and how they act upon the body, there are also excellent sections on the toxicity of gases and vapors and heavy metals. Goodman and Gilman thoroughly evaluate many of the more widely used compounds utilized by the pharmaceutical industry. 

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the major involuntary, unconscious, automatic portion of the nervous system and contrasts in several ways with the somatic (voluntary) nervous system. The anatomy, neurotransmitter chemistry, receptor characteristics, and functional integration of the ANS are discussed below. 

Section 3.1. describes application of the NADPH diaphorase method to fixed, whole nervous tissue. This approach has not been applied to vertebrate central nervous systems because they are simply too large and multilayered for it to be of any use m revealing NOS anatomy. It has been used in studies of the mammalian peripheral autonomic nervous system (15), but where the whole-mount staining method has proven especially useful is in the analysis of NOS anatomy in the smaller and simpler central nervous systems of invertebrates (10)... 

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