Afferent nerve fiber

In the peripheral nervous system, afferent nerve fibers are part of the sensory nervous system and arise from outside of the central nervous system. Sensory and mixed nerves contain afferent fibers.

Structure

Afferent neurons are pseudounipolar neurons that have a single process leaving the cell body dividing into two branches: the long one towards the sensory organ, and the short one toward the central nervous system (e.g. spinal cord). These cells do have sensory afferent dendrites, similar to those typically inherent in neurons. They have a smooth and rounded cell body located in the ganglia of the peripheral nervous system. Just outside the spinal cord, thousands of afferent neuronal cell bodies are aggregated in a swelling in the dorsal root known as the dorsal root ganglion.

All of the axons in the dorsal root, which contains afferent nerve fibers, are used in the transduction of somatosensory information. Somatosensory receptors include senses such as pain, touch, temperature, itch, and stretch. For example, a specific muscle fiber called an intrafusal muscle fiber is a type of afferent neuron that lies parallel to the extrafusal muscle fibers thus functions as a stretch receptor by detecting muscle length.

All of these sensations travel along the same general pathways towards the brain. One pathway—dorsal column–medial lemniscus pathway—begins with sensation from the periphery being sent via afferent nerve fiber of the dorsal root ganglion (first order neuron) through the spinal cord to the dorsal column nuclei (second order neuron) in the brainstem. The second order neuron's projection decussates at the medulla through medial lemniscus to the third order neurons in the thalamus. The third order neuron's axon terminates at the primary somatosensory cortex of the parietal lobe.

Types

Types of afferent fibers include the general somatic, the general visceral, the special somatic and the special visceral afferent fibers.

Alternatively, in the sensory system, afferent fibers can be classified by sizes with category specifications depending on if they innervate the skins or muscles.