What are Spinal Nerves?
Spinal nerves are the vessels that carry information from the brain out to the body and vice verse. As part of the peripheral nervous system, they are found not in the spinal cord, which like the brain is a part of the central nervous system, but exiting the spinal cord and traveling to the various parts of the body that they innervate. Spinal nerves are paired, meaning that for any given nerve there is one supplying the right side of the body and one supplying the left side. Thirty-one pairs in total exit the spine, with approximately one pair leaving each vertebra: eight pairs come from the cervical region, 12 pairs exit the thoracic region, five pairs leave the lumbar region, five pairs come from the sacral region, and one pair exits the coccyx, or tailbone.
