afferent

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adjective

Transmitting impulses from sense organs to nerve centers: sensory. See body/spirit.

A word pertaining to the sensory neural inputs to the nervous system — the nerves and their signals (action potentials) running from the senses to the brain. See also efferent.

(Published 1987)

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1. conveying inwards to a part, organ, or centre, as of a blood vessel, nerve, or duct.
2. an afferent part, e.g. an afferent blood vessel or afferent nerve. Compare efferent.

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Conducting toward a center or specific site of reference; incoming.

• a. arterioles — branches of the interlobular arteries of the kidney that supply the glomerular capillaries of the renal corpuscle.
• a. loop syndrome — chronic partial obstruction of the proximal loop (duodenum and jejunum) after gastrojejunostomy, resulting in duodenal distention, pain and nausea following ingestion of food.
• a. nerve — any nerve that transmits impulses from the periphery toward the central nervous system. See also neuron, afferent nerve fibers (below).
• a. nerve fibers — nerve fibers in the peripheral nervous system carrying information to the brain and spinal cord. Their cell bodies are in ganglia and their telodendria in the central nervous system.
• a. nervous activity — the number of afferent nerve fibers that are activated by the stimulus. This depends on the number of receptive fields that are included in the zone being stimulated.
• a. system — the collective sensory fibers from all parts of the body.

(af′ərənt)
adj

Conveying from a periphery to a center.