What is the role of a relay neurone?

A relay neurone is a type of neurone that sits in the grey matter of the spinal cord. They pass the electrical signal produced from the sensory neurone (the neurone that detects the stimulus, such as touching a hot plate) and the motor neurone (the neurone that will cause the arm to contract, pulling the hand away from the hot plate).

A relay neurone connects a motor and sensory neurone, and allows nerve impulses to be passed from one to the other.

Relay neurons are a type of nerve cell that carry information, in the form of nerve impulses, within the central nervous system. Relay neurones are important for passing the information from the sensory neurons to the motor neurons.

a Relay neurone connects a sensory neurone to a motor neurone

Relay neurones can be found in the coordinators central nervous system (CNS) and are responsible for carrying an impulse from a sensory neurone to a motor neurone.

In a reflex action, the sense information received by the receptor is passed in the form of an electrical impulse along the sensory neurone. The sensory neurone reaches either the brain or spinal chord, and passes the impulse to the relay neurone inside the brain or spinal chord. The relay neurone then carries this sense information to a motor neurone, where the electrical impulse is passed on to an effector which brings about a response.

allows sensory and motor neurones to communicate with each other, is situated inside the spinal cord and connects to each neurone via synapses