Reply
Sat 11 Mar, 2017 03:40 pm
Many sensory nerves (i.e., pseudounipolar) consist of a long dendritic nerve fibre that may travel (say) from the far periphery of a limb, all the way to the DRG of the spinal chord. Since only axons are myelinated (or so I have always been taught) how can the conduction speed be adequate for a useful response time to any stimuli?
@terence57,
terence57 wrote:
Many sensory nerves (i.e., pseudounipolar) consist of a long dendritic nerve fibre that may travel (say) from the far periphery of a limb, all the way to the DRG of the spinal chord. Since only axons are myelinated (or so I have always been taught) how can the conduction speed be adequate for a useful response time to any stimuli?
Its not meant to!
Pain receptors use the myelinated nerve paths which is why severe pain "throbs". The signal is switching on and off due to the myelinated nerve.
Some signals to the brain are not meant to be immediate just like pain. Hunger and urination signals are also not meant to need immediate signals. Why would they need to be?
@Krumple,
Thanks for your reply, but I just don't buy your answer. In the first case, I doubt that the action potential signal jumping between nodes of Ranvier accounts for throbbing pain, which is most likely related to pulsatile blood flow from inflammation. Secondly, the afferent response would surely need to be as fast as the efferent for many reflexes responses to perform adequately. There is no rationale for the afferent pathway to be an order of magnitude slower, which is the case for non-myelinated nerve fibres of given CSA.