What is somatic?

What Does somatic Mean

In order to determine the etymological origin of somatic, we have to go to Greek. And it is that in this language are the two components that give shape to this term: the noun "soma", which can be translated as "body", and the suffix "-tico", which is equivalent to "relative to".

Somatic is used to name, in an animated being, that which is corporeal or material .
In biology and medicine , a somatic symptom is one whose nature is eminently of this type (corporeal), unlike psychic symptoms.
For example: "We thought that the dizziness was due to stress, but it turned out to be a somatic issue" , "The doctor recommended that Bruno see a psychologist, since he did not find any somatic evidence of what he indicates" , "The Somatic and psychic problems must be treated with the same seriousness ” .

The psychosomatic disorders are those psychic processes that have influence and effects on the somatic. This means that certain somatic symptoms (with bodily evidence) may have their origin in emotional processes. This reality is very difficult for physicians to pin down since variables that are inaccessible to the scientific method affect them.
The rise in pressure in a situation of nervousness, flushing (turning red) when feeling ashamed and irritable bowel due to stress are some examples of somatic consequences from something emotional.
In addition to all the above, we would have to highlight the existence of what is known as somatic cells. These are those whose clear mission is to undertake what would be the growth of the organs and tissues that shape the body of a multicellular living being.
In addition, it is important to know about this type of cells a series of characteristics that define them:

• They are all the same, from a genetic point of view.

• Its origin is found in half of the father's genes and half of the mother's genes, which come together during the process called fertilization.
It is known as the somatic nervous system ( SNS ), on the other hand, the system composed of sensory neurons that transfer information from sensory receptors (such as the skin ) to the central nervous system ( CNS ) through motor axons.
The spinal nerves, the cranial nerves, the optic nerve, the olfactory nerve, the common hiding motor nerve, the trigeminal nerve, the trochlear nerve, and the vagus nerve are some of the components of the SNS . Likewise, the existence of the facial nerve, the auditory nerve or the pneumogastric nerve must also be highlighted.
Of all these components, it is worth highlighting two of them:

• The spinal nerves are those whose mission is to carry out the sending of sensory information about the extremities or the trunk to the central nervous system. For this they resort, as a transmission route, to the spinal cord.

• The cranial nerves, as their name suggests, what they do is send sensory data from the neck and head to the aforementioned central nervous system.

Go up