In the passage below taken from the textbook, “A Textbook of Head and Neck Anatomy” by Berkovitz and Moxham, the term “vertebral or spinal column” is a dated term with respect to the tensegrity model and the ELDOA.
The spine is NOT a column of support for the weight of the body as was once believed, and this will be discussed in the theoretical portion of the lectures in both ELDOA 1 and ELDOA 2 courses scheduled for November in Dallas,
“The spinal chord (medulla spinalis) is that part of the central nervous system that is located extracranially; it is contained within the vertebral canal of the vertebral column. Although the spinal chord constitutes only 2% of the central nervous system it has considerable functional significance. First, it is linked to the periphery of the body through 31 pairs of spinal nerves. Second, the spinal chord organizes many somatic and autonomic reflexes. Third, it passes sensory information to the brain (including proprioceptive information about the activities of neurons in the spinal chord). Fourth, the spinal chord conveys information from the brain for the control of both somatic and autonomic activities“- p. 427.