Question

Traumatic injuries, such as that suffered by Christopher Reeves (an actor that portrayed Superman years ago) can affect a variety of functions of the body. The dysfunctions are dependent upon the level in the spinal cord the damage occurred and what aspect(s) of the cord is damaged. In this posting, you are to describe the organization schemes of the spinal cord (both anterior-posterior as well as internally).

Answer 1

The spinal cord is divided into 31 segments with 31 pairs of nerves exiting the cord - 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 1 coccygeal nerve.
In respect of internal structure of the cord, there are white matter in the periphery and gray matter inside. In the center there is a thin canal filled with cerebrospinal fluid.