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Neurones

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Within the peripheral nervous system, neurones are the fundamental unit of nervous tissue. Typically, there are dendrites converging on a cell body; the cell body forms a single nerve fibre - an axon - that relays signals to the end sensory, motor or autonomic organ. The axon contains many neurofibrils. Neurones are subdivided into:

motor neurones:
- large cell body in ventral horn of spinal cord
- multiple dendrites attached to cell body
- long axon to target organ leaving the spinal cord via the ventral roo
- axon terminates on the motor end plate of the innervated muscle
sensory neurones:
- cell body in the dorsal root ganglion
- single axon running from sensory organ which may be a sensory organ such as a Meissner's corpuscle, or a free ending within the skin
- axon passes through dorsal root ganglion
- axon synapses within the spinal cord either:
  - within the dorsal horn
  - ascending to the brainstem
sympathetic neurones:
- unmyelinated
- control vasomotor and pilomotor function

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