Cited by 42Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic ControlPain Mechanisms and TreatmentsNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

B-Afferents: A fundamental division of the nervous system mediating homeostasis?

Prechtl, James C., Powley, Terry L.·1990·Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Abstract

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) has classically been separated into a somatic division composed of both afferent and efferent pathways and an autonomic division containing only efferents. J. N. Langley, who codified this asymmetrical plan at the beginning of the twentieth century, considered different afferents, including visceral ones, as candidates for inclusion in his concept of the “autonomic nervous system” (ANS), but he finally excluded all candidates for lack of any distinguishing histological markers. Langley's classification has been enormously influential in shaping modern ideas about both the structure and the function of the PNS. We survey recent information about the PNS and argue that many of the sensory neurons designated as “visceral” and “somatic” are in fact part of a histologically distinct group of afferents concerned primarily autonomic function. These afferents have traditionally been known as “small dark” neurons or B-neurons. In this target article we outline an association between autonomic and B-neurons based on ontogeny, cell phenotype, and functional relations, grouping them together as part of a common reflex system involved in homeostasis. This more parsimonious classification of the PNS, made possible by the identification of a group of afferents associated primarily with the ANS, avoids a number of confusions produced by the classical orientation. It may also have practical implications for an understanding of nociception, homeostatic refle…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0140525x00078729

Cites

352 of 352 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The vagus nerve is composed of 80% afferent and 20% efferent fibers.

    “It is composed of 80% afferent and 20% efferent fibers (Agostoni et al., 1957;Prechtl and Powley, 1990)”

    From The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis (2019) · cites this paper as Prechtl and Powley, 1990

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

5 of the 357 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Prechtl, J. C., & Powley, T. L.
Affiliations
Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
Venue
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Published
1990-06
Volume
13
Issue
2
Pages
289-300
ISSN
  • 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-1825
OpenAlex
W2166156833
Cited by
42
References
357
Citations by year
2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2013: 2
FWCI
1.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
autonomic nervous system, somatic afferents, visceral afferents, nociception, nervous system evolution, ontogeny, cell phenotype

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review