Phrenic nerve

The nerve that activates the diaphragm.


A pair of nerves which controls the muscles in the diaphragm.


One of a pair of nerves, arising from cervical spinal roots and passing down the thorax to innervate the diaphragm and help control its movements during breathing.


Nerve that stimulates the diaphragm to contract, thereby initiating respiration.


The nerve that supplies the muscles of the diaphragm. On each side it arises in the neck from the third, fourth, and fifth cervical spinal roots and passes downward between the lungs and the heart to reach the diaphragm. Impulses through the nerves from the brain bring about the regular contractions of the diaphragm during breathing.


The nerve which chiefly supplies the diaphragm. A phrenic nerve arises on each side of the spinal cord from the third, fourth and fifth cervical spinal nerves; both follow a long course down the neck, and through the chest to the diaphragm. They play a key part in respiration through control of the diaphragm. Injury to one nerve paralyses one half of the diaphragm. Occasionally the phrenic nerve may be surgically crushed as part of the treatment to repair a hiatus hernia or, rarely, to stop intractable hiccups.


A quack method, common in the Victorian era, allegedly to study the mind and character of individuals from the shape of the head. As the shape of the head has been shown to depend chiefly upon accidental characteristics, such as the size of the air spaces in the bones, and not upon development of special areas in the contained brain, there is no scientific basis for the practice.


A nerve arising in the cervical plexus (originating from spinal segments C3-C5), entering the thorax, and running in the mediastinum between the pleura and the pericardium to end in the central portion of the diaphragm; a motor nerve to the diaphragm with additional sensory fibers to the pericardium.


One of the two primary nerves responsible for supplying the diaphragm is the phrenic nerve. Originating from the third, fourth, and fifth cervical nerves in the neck, these nerves then travel downwards through the chest on each side, eventually reaching the diaphragm. Each phrenic nerve carries motor signals to one side of the diaphragm and contributes to the regulation of breathing. If either of these nerves gets damaged, for instance through the intrusion of a tumor (as seen in cases like lung cancer), it leads to paralysis in the corresponding half of the diaphragm.


 

 


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