so the cranial portion of the parasympathetic nervous system is carried by four nerves the
oculomotor which is cranial nerve three the facial which is cranial nerve seven the glossopharyngeal
which is cranial nerve nine and the Vagus which is cranial nerve 10 this comprises the cranial
portion of the cranial sacral parasympathetic nervous system as we already talked about when
we talked about the vagus nerve you can really see or what we can see in this slide here we
go oh he can see in this section is all of our cranial nerves and again it's three seven nine
and ten that have a parasympathetic component we also have a parasympathetic nucleus that lives
in our sacral spinal cord from s2 to s4 these guys the cranial nerves are obviously going to
be distributed within the head and neck except of course for the vagus the vagus which comes down
and does you know the heart the lungs the liver the stomach and almost all of the intestines down
to that splenic flexure well that splenic flexure is important because this is where these sacrals
come in so these guys this they're called pelvic splanchnic nerves and splanchnic is the greek for
a hollow organ so viscera is the latin splanchnic is the greek the splanchnic nerves then come out
and take over where the vagus leaves off okay so let me erase and then draw in our again draw
in our pelvic so if they come along here excuse me and they're going to innervate things like
the bladder and the uterus the prostate uterus our prostate depending on which one of those you have
and then the colon passed distal to the splenic flexure the parasympathetics are distributed
within your head your neck your thorax your abdomen and your pelvis what's missing from
this list are your limbs there is no resting or digesting in your arms and legs so they don't have
a parasympathetic component to their innervation this is again to remind me to remind you about our
pelvic splanchnic that are here between s2 and s4 are their pre ganglionics they come out and they
synapse in the wall of the organ and that's where those ganglionic neurons are they're distributed
within the wall of the gut and in ganglia that are very close to the bladder or the reproductive
organs and again they're going to provide parasympathetic innervation from the splenic
flexure of the colon down so descending colon sigmoid colon and rectum so what do I want you
to know about the parasympathetic nervous system so with regard to pre ganglionic parasympathetic
neurons where are they what neurotransmitter do they use and are their axons long or short
where will you find the parasympathetic ganglia I think the difference between cranial like the the
cranial nerves and think about the sacral area and what those pre ganglionic neurons project to with
regard to the ganglionic neurons where they found what's their neurotransmitter and are their axons
long or short once you have this these concepts under your cap you're ready for the assessment