After a motor vehicle crash, loss of sensation and motion in both legs, but not the arms, most likely indicates an injury to the

• A. Brain
• B. Spinal cord, below the neck
• C. Neck above the C5
• D. Upper thoracic spine

Answer: (B)

The main idea is that where the spinal cord is injured determines which parts of the body lose movement and sensation. The nerves that control the arms come from the cervical portion of the spinal cord (roughly neck level), while the nerves that control the legs come from the thoracic and lumbar regions. If a person cannot feel or move both legs but still has functioning arms, the injury is located at or below the level that supplies the arms—i.e., in the spinal cord below the neck. That points to the thoracic or lumbar region of the spinal cord rather than the brain or the cervical (neck) area. An injury above the neck would typically involve the arms, and a purely upper-thoracic injury would still be a subset of injuries below the neck, but describing it as spinal cord below the neck best fits the overall pattern of paraplegia with preserved upper-limb function.