Types of nerves and ganglia (English)

Spinal nerves contain sensory and motor neurons. Sensory (or afferent) neurons carry information from the periphery to the CNS. The sensory axons enter the spinal cord as the dorsal nerve root. The cell bodies of these neurons are located in the dorsal root ganglion (or spinal ganglion), which is an enlargement of the spinal nerve and is classified as a sensory ganglion. The motor (or efferent) neurons carry information from the CNS to the periphery. The motor fibers, somatic and autonomic, emerge from the spinal cord as the ventral nerve root. The cell bodies of these neurons are located in the gray matter of the spinal cord. These impulses are conveyed through pre- and postganglionic autonomic (or visceral), efferent (or motor) nerve fibers. The synapse between these two types of neurons occurs in the autonomic ganglia, where the cell bodies of the postganglionic neuron are located.