Both are motor pathways that carry commands out of the CNS. But they are wired in different ways, and they act in different ways. Switch between them to see how.
Somatic
CNS on the left · target on the right
Two ways outsomatic vs autonomic
📷 Reference image
A real labeled figure. Compare it with the interactive above.
Somatic vs Autonomic — OpenStax, CC BY 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
