Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Visceral and viscus (from Latin viscera 'internal organs'): associated with organs within the body's cavities and pertaining to the innermost layer. [57] For example, the stomach is covered with a lining called the visceral peritoneum, as opposed to the parietal peritoneum. Viscus can also be used to mean "organ". [57]
The visceral layer of the membrane covers the organ (the viscera), and the parietal layer lines the walls of the body cavity (pariet- refers to a cavity wall). Between the parietal and visceral layers is a very thin, fluid-filled serous space, or cavity. [1] For example, the pericardium is the serous cavity which surrounds the heart. [1]
Early in embryonic life visceral organs develop adjacent to a cavity and invaginate into the bag-like coelom. Therefore, each organ becomes surrounded by serous membrane - they do not lie within the serous cavity. The layer in contact with the organ is known as the visceral layer, while the parietal layer is in contact with the body wall.
In anatomy, a viscus is an internal organ, and viscera is the plural form. Organs consist of different tissues, one or more of which prevail and determine its specific structure and function. Functionally related organs often cooperate to form whole organ systems. Viscera are the soft organs of the body.
Splanchnology is the study of the viscera. [8] The term "visceral" is contrasted with the term "parietal", meaning "of or relating to the wall of a body part, organ or cavity". [9] The two terms are often used in describing a membrane or piece of connective tissue, referring to the opposing sides. [10]
Visceral pain is pain that results from the activation of nociceptors of the thoracic, pelvic, or abdominal viscera (organs). Visceral structures are highly sensitive to distension (stretch), ischemia and inflammation , but relatively insensitive to other stimuli that normally evoke pain such as cutting or burning.
In the abdomen, general visceral afferent fibers usually accompany sympathetic efferent fibers. This means that a signal traveling in an afferent fiber will begin at sensory receptors in the afferent fiber's target organ, travel up to the ganglion where the sympathetic efferent fiber synapses, continue back along a splanchnic nerve from the ganglion into the sympathetic trunk, move into a ...
Autonomic nervous system, showing splanchnic nerves in middle, and the vagus nerve as "X" in blue. The heart and organs below in list to right are regarded as viscera. The autonomic nervous system has been classically divided into the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system only (i.e., exclusively motor).