Sensory nerve

Sensory nerve
Details
Identifiers
Latinnervus sensorius
TA98A14.2.00.022
TA26132
FMA5868
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy

A sensory nerve, or afferent nerve, is an anatomic term for a nerve that contains exclusively afferent nerve fibers.[1] Nerves containing also motor fibers are called mixed. Afferent nerve fibers in a sensory nerve carry sensory information toward the central nervous system (CNS) from different sensory receptors of sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system.

A motor nerve carries information from the CNS to the PNS.

Afferent nerve fibers link the sensory neurons throughout the body, in pathways to the relevant processing circuits in the central nervous system.[2]

Afferent nerve fibers are often paired with efferent nerve fibers from the motor neurons (that travel from the CNS to the PNS), in mixed nerves. Stimuli cause nerve impulses in the receptors and alter the potentials, which is known as sensory transduction.[3]

  1. ^ "Foundational Model of Anatomy - Sensory nerve - Classes | NCBO BioPortal". bioportal.bioontology.org. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  2. ^ Purves, Dale; Augustine, George J.; Fitzpatrick, David; Hall, William C.; LaMantia, Anthony-Samuel; White, Leonard E., eds. (2012). Neuroscience (5th ed.). Sunderland, Massachusetts U.S.: Sinauer Associates, Inc. ISBN 978-0-87893-695-3.
  3. ^ Carlson, Neil R. (2014). Physiology of Behaviour (11th ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 9780205239399.