Final answer:
The somatic nervous system is part of the peripheral nervous system, controlling voluntary muscle movements and reflexes, enabling tasks from simple walking to complex activities like playing musical instruments.
Step-by-step explanation:
The somatic nervous system (SNS) is a division of the peripheral nervous system concerned with voluntary muscular movements and sensory information processing. It enables conscious control over skeletal muscles, contributing to activities like walking, talking, and playing an instrument. The SNS is responsible for both voluntary actions, such as moving a limb, and involuntary reflexes, such as quickly withdrawing a hand from a hot surface. Additionally, while some muscle movements become subconscious over time, as in habit learning or procedural memory, these are still under the domain of the somatic nervous system. Motor neurons in the SNS carry instructions from the central nervous system to the muscles, which are termed efferent fibers (signifying 'moving away from'), while sensory neurons bring sensory information to the central nervous system, known as afferent fibers (meaning 'moving toward').