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Efferent nerve

 
Efferent Nerve

 
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Efferent nerve
 
 
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In the nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
, efferent nerves – otherwise known as motor or effector neurons – carry nerve impulses
Action potential

An action potential is a self-regenerating wave of electrochemical activity that allows nerve cells to carry a signal over a distance. It is the primary electrical signal generated by nerve cells, and arises from changes in the permeability of the nerve cell's axonal Cell membranes to specific ions....
 away from the central nervous system
Central nervous system

The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that functions to coordinate the activity of all parts of the bodies of multicellular organisms....
 to effectors such as muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
s or gland
Gland

A gland is an Organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance for release such as hormones or breast milk, often into the bloodstream or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface ....
s (and also the ciliated cells of the inner ear). The term can also be used to describe relative connections between nervous structures (for example, a neuron's efferent synapse provides input to another neuron, and not vice-versa). The opposite activity of direction or flow is afferent
Afferent nerve

In the nervous system, afferent neurons , carry action potential from receptor s or sense organs toward the central nervous system. This term can also be used to describe relative connections between structures....
.

The motor nerve
Motor nerve

Motor nerves allow the brain to stimulate muscle contraction. A motor nerve is an efferent nerve that exclusively contains the axons of somatic and branchial motoneurons, which innervate skeletal muscles and branchial muscles ....
s are efferent nerves involved in muscular control.






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Encyclopedia


In the nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
, efferent nerves – otherwise known as motor or effector neurons – carry nerve impulses
Action potential

An action potential is a self-regenerating wave of electrochemical activity that allows nerve cells to carry a signal over a distance. It is the primary electrical signal generated by nerve cells, and arises from changes in the permeability of the nerve cell's axonal Cell membranes to specific ions....
 away from the central nervous system
Central nervous system

The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that functions to coordinate the activity of all parts of the bodies of multicellular organisms....
 to effectors such as muscle
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
s or gland
Gland

A gland is an Organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance for release such as hormones or breast milk, often into the bloodstream or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface ....
s (and also the ciliated cells of the inner ear). The term can also be used to describe relative connections between nervous structures (for example, a neuron's efferent synapse provides input to another neuron, and not vice-versa). The opposite activity of direction or flow is afferent
Afferent nerve

In the nervous system, afferent neurons , carry action potential from receptor s or sense organs toward the central nervous system. This term can also be used to describe relative connections between structures....
.

The motor nerve
Motor nerve

Motor nerves allow the brain to stimulate muscle contraction. A motor nerve is an efferent nerve that exclusively contains the axons of somatic and branchial motoneurons, which innervate skeletal muscles and branchial muscles ....
s are efferent nerves involved in muscular control. The cell
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
 body
Soma (biology)

The soma, or cyton or perikaryon, is the bulbous end of a neuron, containing the cell nucleus. The word soma is Greek language, meaning "body"; the soma of a neuron is often called the "Cell body"....
 of the efferent neuron is found in the central nervous system where it is connected to a single, long axon
Axon

An axon or nerve fiber is a long, slender projectionof a nerve cell, or neuron, that conducts action potentialaway from the neuron's cell body or soma....
 and several short dendrite
Dendrite

Dendrites are the branched projections of a neuron that act to conduct the electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body, or Soma , of the neuron from which the dendrites project....
s projecting out of the cell body itself. This axon then forms a neuromuscular junction
Neuromuscular junction

A neuromuscular junction is the synapse or junction of the axon terminal of a motoneuron with the motor end plate, the highly-excitable region of muscle plasma membrane responsible for initiation of action potentials across the muscle's surface, ultimately causing the muscle to contract....
 with the effectors. The cell body of the motor neuron is satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
-shaped. The motor neuron is present in the grey matter
Grey matter

Grey matter is a major component of the central nervous system, consisting of Neuron Soma , neuropil , glial cells and Capillary. Grey matter contains neural cell bodies, in contrast to white matter, which does not and mostly contains myelinated axon tracts....
 of the spinal cord
Spinal cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of neuron and glia that extends from the brain. The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system....
 and medulla oblongata
Medulla oblongata

The medulla oblongata is the lower portion of the brainstem. It deals with Autonomic nervous system functions, such as breathing and blood pressure....
, and forms an electrochemical pathway to the effector organ or muscle.

Etymology and Mnemonics

Both afferent and efferent come from French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, evolved from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 (the basis of many terms in medicine and biology) for the terms, respectively, ad ferens (Latin verb ferre: carry), meaning carrying into, and ex ferens, meaning carrying away. Ad and ex give an easy mnemonic device for remembering the relationship between afferent and efferent: afferent connection arrives and an efferent connection exits.

See also

  • Afferent nerve
    Afferent nerve

    In the nervous system, afferent neurons , carry action potential from receptor s or sense organs toward the central nervous system. This term can also be used to describe relative connections between structures....
  • Motor nerve
    Motor nerve

    Motor nerves allow the brain to stimulate muscle contraction. A motor nerve is an efferent nerve that exclusively contains the axons of somatic and branchial motoneurons, which innervate skeletal muscles and branchial muscles ....
  • Interneuron
    Interneuron

    An interneuron is a multipolar neuron which connects afferent neurons and efferent neurons in neural pathways. Like motor neurons, interneuron cell body are always located in the central nervous system ....
  • General somatic efferent fibers
    General somatic efferent fibers

    The somatic efferent neurons , arise from motor neuron cell bodies in the ventral horns of the gray matter within the spinal cord. They exit the spinal cord through the ventral roots, carrying motor impulses to skeletal muscle....
  • General visceral efferent fibers
    General visceral efferent fibers

    The general visceral efferent fibers , probably arise from cells in the lateral column or the base of the anterior column and emerge through the anterior roots and white rami communicantes....


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