nerve center

noun

1. a group of nerve cells closely connected with one another and acting together in the performance of some function.

2. a source of information, authority, action, etc..

   The communications room is the nerve center of a battleship.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nerve center¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

An evocatively realized setting such as Ms. Bigelow’s Washington nerve center can be ample reason to make a movie worth seeing, but three others that were overflowing with local atmosphere offered far more than that.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But a growing fleet of Amazon data centers has turned the region around Umatilla into an unlikely nerve center for one of the most expensive infrastructure build-outs in U.S. history.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She applies a forensic eye to what might happen in a handful of nerve centers if radar picked up an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile headed straight for the Midwest.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

As the creative nerve center of the site, the studio is where the Eameses spent the bulk of their time working on various projects.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

If we were to squeeze through small cracks in his mind’s cavern walls or crawl down its miniaturized hallways toward Erickson's nerve center, we might find ourselves in a room with a broken printer.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• command post 
• focal point 
• headquarters 
• hotbed