Some Further Comments on Autonomic Afferents

Some Further Comments on Autonomic Afferents

      Some important points that may be noted about autonomic afferents are as follows.

a.              Autonomic afferents are necessary for various visceral reflexes. Most of these impulses are not consciously perceived.

b.              Some normal visceral sensations that reach consciousness include those of hunger, nausea, distension of the urinary bladder or rectum, and sexual sensations. Sense of touch or pressure perceived by the tongue and pharynx, and the sensation of taste are also visceral sensations.

c.               Under pathological conditions visceral pain is perceived. This is produced by distension, by spasm of smooth muscle, or by anoxia.

d.              Sensory impulses from the same organ may travel both along sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves .