Somatic pathways may be _____________ or ______________.

• A. efferent or afferent
• B. central or peripheral
• C. motor or sensory
• D. somatic or visceral

Answer: (A)

Somatic pathways are defined by the direction of signal flow relative to the central nervous system. They include both afferent pathways, which carry sensory information from receptors in the body to the brain and spinal cord, and efferent pathways, which transmit motor commands from the CNS to skeletal muscles. This directionality is the key idea: a pathway is described by where the signal goes, not just what it does or where it is located. The other options mix up different concepts—central versus peripheral refers to location, motor versus sensory to function, and somatic versus visceral to system type—without capturing the directional aspect that defines somatic pathways.