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Afferent is an anatomical term that indicates functional directionality. In nervous tissue, afferent is often used synonymously with sensory information when it refers to nerves carrying impulses from peripheral receptors toward the central nervous system. Afferent can also be used in general to refer to any connection coming into a structure within the nervous system. The opposite direction of conduction is efferent.
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Purves, D., et al. (Eds.). (2012). Neuroscience (5th ed.). Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.
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Bigbee, J. (2016). Afferent. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_289-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_289-3
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