For clinicians working in functional neurology, neurorehabilitation, and integrative practice, autonomic disorders represent some of the most clinically complex presentations in healthcare. Patients with dysautonomia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), orthostatic hypotension, and post-injury autonomic dysregulation arrive with symptoms distributed across cardiovascular, vestibular, gastrointestinal, ocular, and neuropsychiatric systems. Routine workups return normal. Structural imaging is unrevealing. Standard labels, whether anxiety, deconditioning, or functional disorder, describe what is not known rather than what is happening physiologically. CNS-04 Autonomic Networks and Intracranial Vascular Disorders was built for the clinician who is ready to close that gap.

This 25-credit-hour advanced course, part of the CNS Curriculum from the Carrick Institute, delivers a comprehensive and clinically integrated education in the central autonomic network, intracranial neurovascular anatomy, cerebral blood flow regulation, and the full spectrum of bedside and laboratory autonomic examination. The curriculum moves systematically from foundational ANS anatomy and the development of the autonomic nervous system through the full architecture of the central autonomic network, including the insular cortex, hypothalamus, parabrachial nucleus, nucleus tractus solitarius, periaqueductal gray, and cerebellum. Clinicians learn to interpret pupillometry and ocular autonomic signs, perform and classify orthostatic challenges, apply provocative sympathetic testing including isometric handgrip and cold pressor protocols, and integrate HRV with a structured bedside autonomic examination. The vascular neuroscience content covers the cerebral circulation from the Circle of Willis through brainstem and posterior fossa arterial territories, intracranial venous anatomy, CSF physiology, the blood-brain barrier, and the recognition and referral pathways for vascular emergencies including stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and cerebral venous thrombosis. Rehabilitation modules address autonomic reconditioning, breathing-based intervention, and response-dosed progression grounded in measured examination findings.

CNS-04 is designed for licensed clinicians who are already engaged in neurodiagnostic and neurorehabilitative practice and who are ready to elevate their capacity for localization and systematic autonomic assessment. Functional neurologists, chiropractic neurologists, neurologic physical therapists, and advanced practice clinicians in integrative neurology will find this course provides both the theoretical depth and the practical examination frameworks needed to approach their most complex patients with clarity and confidence.