The cervical nerves are the spinal nerves from the cervical vertebrae.
Although there are seven cervical vertebrae (C1-C7), there are eight cervical nerves (C1-C8). All nerves except C8 emerge above their corresponding vertebrae, while the C8 nerve emerges below the C7 vertebra. (In the other portions of the spine, the nerve emerges below the vertebra with the same name.)
Dorsal (posterior) distribution includes the suboccipital (C1), greater occipital (C2) and third occipital (C3).
Ventral (anterior) distribution includes the cervical plexus (C1-C4) and brachial plexus (C5-T1)
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“If we reason, we would be understood; if we imagine, we would that the airy children of our brain were born anew within another’s; if we feel, we would that another’s nerves should vibrate to our own, that the beams of their eyes should kindle at once and mix and melt into our own, that lips of motionless ice should not reply to lips quivering and burning with the heart’s best blood. This is Love.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)