What is the Solar Plexus? – Definition, Function & Location
The solar plexus, located in the center of the torso above the navel, is a central location for nerves within the abdominal area. In this lesson, you’ll learn more about the solar plexus and its function within the human body.
What Is the Solar Plexus?
Nate, a student nurse, is shadowing an occupational health nurse at a construction site. Shortly into his shift, a construction worker is helped into the on-site health clinic by a bunch of his co-workers. He is short of breath, and his co-worker mentions to the nurse that he got rammed in the stomach by a steel pipe. The injured worker says, ‘I just got the wind knocked out of me!’
Nate’s preceptor (experienced nurse), understands that the worker might have gotten hit in the solar plexus, and helps to make him more comfortable on a cot while she starts to explain the worker’s injury.
The solar plexus is a collection of two bundles of nerves, or ganglion, that intertwine and pass each other at a central location in the abdomen. The solar plexus, more traditionally known as the coeliac (belly) plexus, gets its new name from its resemblance to the sun with nerves meeting in the center, creating rays of nerves radiating outward to many other areas of the body.
Nate learns that the solar plexus is held in the middle of the abdomen just behind the stomach and in front of the aorta (one of the largest blood vessels in the body). It sits just below the diaphragm, or muscle below the lungs that causes hiccups when it spasms. Nate asks the worker to point to the spot where the pipe hit him, and it matches the very location that his preceptor described.
Solar Plexus Function
An essential part of the body’s nervous system, the solar plexus plays a large role in keeping our organs functioning smoothly and preparing the body to respond to stress by making changes in metabolism. At times, the solar plexus causes changes in the body in response to stress and produces a fight-or-flight response. This automatic nervous system response floods the body with hormones it needs to act quickly and prepare itself for trauma (physical injury), or the speed and strength it needs to preserve itself.
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