Nerve net Nerve net A nerve net consists of interconnected neurons lacking a brain or any form of cephalization. While organisms with bilateral body symmetry are normally associated with a central nervous system, organisms with radial symmetry are associated with nerve nets. Nerve nets can be found in members of the Cnidaria, Ctenophora, and Echinodermata phyla, all of which are found in marine environments. Nerve nets can provide animals with the ability to sense objects through the use of the sensory neurons within the nerve net. The nerve net is the simplest form of a nervous system found in multicellular organisms. Unlike
Nerve net with nerve nets lack a true brain, they have the ability to display complex movements and behaviors. The presence of a nerve net allows an organism belonging to the aforementioned phyla of Cnidaria, Ctenophora, and Echinodermata to have increased fitness as a result of being able to respond to their environment. Developmental neurogenesis of nerve nets is conserved between phyla and has been mainly studied in cnidaria, especially in the model organism Hydra. The following discusses the development of the nerve net in Cnidaria, but the same mechanism for the differentiation of nervous tissue is seen in Ctenophora and Echinodermata.