Sensory nerve
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.
Sensory nerve
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]
Spinal cord entry[edit]
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.