Dorsal Root Ganglion

Intro | Central Canal | Dorsal Horn | Dorsal Root | Dorsal Root Ganglion | Grey Matter | Motor Nerve | Sensory Nerve | Spinal Cord | Spinal Nerve | Ventral Root | White Matter

Part 1: Image-Mapped Tutorial
Part 2: Matching Self-Test
Part 3: Multiple-Choice Self-Test

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The cell bodies of sensory nerves that convey somatosensory (sense of touch) information to the brain are found in the Dorsal Root Ganglion. These ganglia (or "knotlike" masses) form swellings or nodules along the dorsal root at each level of the spinal cord. These somatosensory neurons are unipolar, where the axon splits in two and sends one branch to the sensory receptor and the other to the brain for processing. Although many of the cell bodies found in the dorsal root ganglia are somatosensory, other sensory systems are represented as well.