Narration
Your spinal cord uses your spinal nerves to carry messages between your brain and your body.

The spinal cord is like a telephone cable, a bundle of telephone lines, connecting your brain to your body.

Messages travel through your spinal cord in two directions. Sensory messages travel from your body to your brain to give your brain information about sensations, such as touch, temperature, pain, and joint position. Motor messages travel from your brain to your body to control movement and body functions. Spinal cord injuries can affect the sensory nerves, motor nerves, or both.