Your nerves pick up information from your environment and send it to your brain through your spinal cord. This allows you to feel something on your skin such as heat and touch. Your brain also sends information down your spinal cord and out your nerves to your muscles and skin. This allows your muscles to move.

The picture on your right illustrates many of the nerves in your body. They are all connected to the thick spinal cord that runs straight up your back and into the base of your brain. Your nerves, therefore, are used to transfer information between the brain and the rest of your body. Some nerves have the function of picking up sensations, while other nerves have the function of making muscles work. Other nerves in your body are deep and work to tell organs what to do.