Our Body’s Communication System: Efferent & Afferent

Why do you know where your hand is?

Close your eyes and try to touch your finger to the tip of your nose. Were you able to do it? 

Let’s go over the why…
The brain sends information to muscles, organs and all the tissues in the body for them to work.
There are organs and reflexes that don’t need constant attention from the brain and can still work as long as they’re getting oxygen and nutrition. For the most part our organs and muscles need to be getting information from the brain to work . 

This information is efferent information.

The tissues receive the efferent information from the brain and then it does what the brain has told it to do.
The tissue that the brain is “talking” with is also picking up information about it’s surroundings. Think about your hand. Your hand has 27 bones, 27 joints, 34 muscles, over 100 ligaments and tendons, and many blood vessels and nerves. 
Each muscle contains proprioceptors which are sensors that collect information about how and where our hand is moving. The brain knows where the hand is because the hand is communicating with the brain.

The information sent from the hand to the brain is afferent information. 

In order for the hand to work at its most efficient it has to receive uninterrupted efferent information from the brain. The same applies to the brain, the brain needs to receive afferent information from the hand so that it can then respond appropriately.

I’ll continue to dive more into how the body communicates with itself in the coming weeks and how when communication is interrupted it can lead to issues with our health.

-Dr. Jake