The peripheral nervous system consists of all nervous tissue outside the central nervous system and has two main components: cranial and spinal nerves, and sensory receptors. It has two functional subdivisions - the sensory (afferent) division which transmits signals from receptors to the CNS, and the motor (efferent) division which transmits signals from the CNS to effector organs like muscles and glands. The motor division contains the somatic nervous system which controls skeletal muscles, and the autonomic nervous system which regulates involuntary functions and contains the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.