nerve cord

noun

1. a single hollow tract of nervous tissue that constitutes the central nervous system of chordates and develops into the spinal cord and brain in vertebrates.
2. a solid double strand of nerve fibers along the length of the body in elongate invertebrates, as earthworms and insects, connecting with a pair of nerve ganglia at each body segment.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nerve cord¹

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Five years later, Du is now an undergraduate at Duke University, and the method she helped develop has been used to predict neurotransmitters in connectomes of the fruit fly hemibrain, ventral nerve cord, and optic lobe created by Janelia researchers and collaborators, as well as the adult fly brain connectome created by FlyWire.

From Science Daily

Unlike a pig’s curlicue or a raccoon’s striped feather duster, a scorpion’s tail also contains the arthropod’s intestine and ventral nerve cord, the invertebrate equivalent of a human spinal cord.

From New York Times

These barrel-shaped filter feeders have a protective rod running the length of their nerve cord while young, making them and other sea quirts our closest relatives among invertebrates.

From Scientific American

The FlyEM group is now working on constructing a circuit diagram of the fruit fly’s full nervous system—which consists of the entire brain and nerve cord, a spinal cordlike structure in the insect.

From Scientific American

His team, led by Jie Yang at Yunnan University in Kunming, China, argued in 2016 that the necklace is a nerve cord studded with smaller clusters of neurons, themselves sprouting tiny nerve fibers.

From Science Magazine