Sensory nerve
a nerve that carries sensory information toward the central nervous system
A sensory nerve, or afferent nerve, is a nerve that contains exclusively afferent nerve fibers. 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 (PNS).
Contrarily, 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.
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.
Spinal cord entry
Afferent nerve fibers leave the sensory neuron from the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord, and motor commands carried by the efferent fibers leave the cord at the ventral roots. The dorsal and some of the ventral fibers join as spinal nerves or mixed nerves.
Nerve damage
Damage to the sensory nerve causes a wide range of symptoms because of the number of functions performed by the nerve. Traumatic injuries and other damages to the sensory nerves may lead to peripheral neuropathy, with problems such as reduced position sense causing poorer coordination and balance, in addition to reduced sensitivity to temperature change and pain, leading to further problems.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sensory nerve” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.