The Autonomic Nervous System of the Head and Neck

In the somatic nervous system, the motor supply to somatic muscle has its cell bodies located in the motor nuclei of cranial nerves or in the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord, with the nerves entering the motor end plates directly. By contrast, in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as a whole, the motor part concerned with the innervation of cardiac and smooth muscle and the bodily glands comprises a pathway from the CNS to the target organ interrupted by a synapse within an intervening ganglion.