Introductory Human Anatomy Question

Question

Peripheral nerves consist of different types of sensory and motor components. please list these components and describe the kind of information that they transmit.

Answer 1

Peripheral nerves consist of various types of sensory and motor components, each responsible for transmitting specific types of information between the central nervous system (CNS) and the rest of the body. Here are some of these components along with the kind of information they transmit:

Sensory Components:

1. Somatic Sensory Nerves: Transmit information related to touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, and pain from the skin, muscles, joints, and connective tissues to the CNS. These nerves play a role in the conscious perception of the external environment and bodily sensations.
2. Visceral Sensory Nerves: Transmit information from internal organs, such as the heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and bladder. This includes sensations like stretching, pressure, and pain. Visceral sensory nerves help regulate involuntary processes and maintain homeostasis.

Motor Components:

1. Somatic Motor Nerves: Control skeletal muscles and enable voluntary movements. These nerves carry motor commands from the CNS to the muscles, allowing for a wide range of movements and activities.
2. Autonomic Motor Nerves: Also known as the autonomic nervous system (ANS), these nerves control involuntary functions of organs and tissues. The ANS is further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions:
3. Sympathetic Nerves: Activate the "fight or flight" response, increasing heart rate, dilating pupils, and redirecting blood flow to muscles.
4. Parasympathetic Nerves: Promote the "rest and digest" response, slowing heart rate, constricting pupils, and facilitating digestion.
5. Enteric Nervous System (ENS): This intrinsic nervous system is found within the walls of the gastrointestinal tract and controls the digestive process. It regulates functions like peristalsis, secretion, and blood flow in the gut.
6. Special Motor Nerves: Control specialized motor functions, such as those of the eyes, tongue, and facial muscles. Examples include the oculomotor nerve (controls eye movement), facial nerve (facial expressions), and hypoglossal nerve (tongue movements).
7. Motor Nerves to Glands: Transmit motor signals to glands, leading to the secretion of various substances. For example, the facial nerve controls tear and salivary gland secretion.

Each of these components plays a crucial role in maintaining bodily functions, sensory perception, and motor control. The combination of sensory and motor nerves enables communication between the CNS and the periphery, allowing for coordinated responses to internal and external stimuli.

Answer 2

So, a very basic breakdown: sensory neurons are the responsible for sensation. They're going to transmit the nerve impulses away from the stimulus (for instance: that hot pan that you just touched) to the processing center (for instance: the Central Nervous System or CNS) where that impulse can be turned around and sent away from the CNS back toward the stimulus (the hot pan). The motor neurons will be sending the signals that tell your muscles what to do (for instance: move away from the hot pan that you just touched).

The easy way to think about it is hand-->head-->hand, but sensations don't necessarily make it the whole way to the brain.

So, the way it goes:
1. Stimulus (what is causing the sensation)
2. Sensory neurons (send information about the sensation to the processing site)
3. CNS (the information gets processed and turned around)
4. Motor neurons (send signals to the muscles to move)
5. Movement (once the muscle receives the signal)

Your sensory neurons are responsible for sensation, touch, pressure, temperature, pain, vibration, and more.

(The sensory side is broken down into somatic and visceral.)

Your motor neurons are responsible for motor innervation of muscles (which means that the nerve is connected to the muscle). This includes skeletal muscle (pick your hand up and put it down) and internal muscles (like the heart in a fight or flight situation - the stimulus might be a scary bear, your eyes sense, your CNS processes the sensation, and shoots the signal to the heart to beat faster and get outta there).

(The motor side is broken down into somatic and autonomic.)

sensory = sensing
motor = movement

Is this question also looking for physical parts of a neuron or is it simply wanting to know the difference in what the two do?