neuraxis

neuraxis

English

Etymology

    From neur- + axis.

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    neuraxis (plural neuraxes)

    1. (anatomy, medicine, usually) Synonym of central nervous system.
    2. (anatomy, embryology, medicine, sometimes) A subset of the central nervous system: i.e., the spinal cord, rhombencephalon, mesencephalon and diencephalon.
      • 1984, Oliver Sacks, “The Disembodied Lady”, chapter 3 in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Reset 2007), page 51:
        The picture revealed by spinal tap was one of an acute polyneuritis, but a polyneuritis of a most exceptional type: not like Guillian–Barré syndrome, with its overwhelming motor involvement, but a purely (or almost purely) sensory neuritis, affecting the sensory roots of spinal and cranial nerves throughout the neuraxis.

    Derived terms

    Further reading