Motor neurons carry signals from the brain to the body. Which option correctly describes this direction?

Motor neurons carry signals from the brain to the body. Which option correctly describes this direction?

• A. From body to brain
• B. From brain to body
• C. To the spinal cord
• D. Within the brain

Answer: (B)

Signals that command muscles travel from the central nervous system outward to the body. Motor neurons are efferent neurons, with cell bodies in the brain or spinal cord and axons that exit the CNS to innervate skeletal muscles and glands. This outward direction is what enables movement and motor control, so “from brain to body” best describes the flow of motor commands. Information moving the opposite way—the body to the brain—is carried by sensory (afferent) neurons, not motor neurons.

Signals that command muscles travel from the central nervous system outward to the body. Motor neurons are efferent neurons, with cell bodies in the brain or spinal cord and axons that exit the CNS to innervate skeletal muscles and glands. This outward direction is what enables movement and motor control, so “from brain to body” best describes the flow of motor commands. Information moving the opposite way—the body to the brain—is carried by sensory (afferent) neurons, not motor neurons.