spinal cord
"The spinal cord is like a busy freeway carrying feelings of touch up from your body to your brain and sending movement commands down from your brain to your body. When all of the lanes are working, the traffic flows smoothly. If you damage your spinal cord or it stops working for some other reason, it's like losing lanes on this freeway."
"The spinal cord is like the brain's tail, as it winds its way through the spinal canal, formed by the stacking of the donut-shaped holes in each bone (vertebra) of the spine. Like an upside down tree, with the root as the brain and the spinal cord as the trunk, the branches are formed by the 31 pairs of nerves exiting the spine. These branches exit the spinal canal through holes (intervertebral foramen), just in front of the joints (called pedicles) that limit our rotation, preventing the 180 degree rotation as was shown in the neck during the Exorcist movie."
"The spinal cord is like a coaxial cable, about one inch in diameter, and is a continuation of the brain."
"Spinal cord injuries have been one area where modern, Western medicine can be of only limited assistance... The damage is so great, that the spinal cord is like the nursery rhyme's Humpty Dumpty, in that it just cannot be put back together again."
"A good analogy is to think of the spinal cord is like a really thick noodle, surrounded by a sac. Better, think of a thick noodle in water, in a Ziplock bag. IF your disc pushes hard enough, it will deform the bag (THECAL SAC), which COULD affect the nervous system. If it pushes on the noodle (CORD), it WILL affect the nervous system at that level, and what that nerve influences in your body."
"Your spinal cord is like a thick braid formed by billions of these nerves. Your body has approximately 15 billion nerve cells-all of which receive and transmit nerve impulses by way of the spinal cord. These impulses control virtually all functions of your body-from your senses to mobility."
"The membrane that covers the spinal cord is like rice paper. Unintentional damage can be caused by retractors, scalpels and even the surgeon's hands. Vigorous manipulation of the spinal nerves can cause chronic radiating pain post-operatively. Weakness in the extremities and muscle wasting is caused by spinal nerve injury."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.