innervate
/'inə:veit/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To supply nerves to an organ or body part: To provide neural connections or pathways to a specific area of the body, enabling its function and sensation.
- To stimulate a nerve, muscle, or organ to action: To activate or excite a physiological structure through neural impulses.
Usage and Examples
- Verb:
- The surgeon carefully avoided damaging the nerves that innervate the heart.
- Electrical signals from the brain innervate the skeletal muscles, causing them to contract.
- This specific spinal nerve innervates the skin of the forearm.
Advanced Usage
- "Reinnervate": To restore nerve supply to a muscle or organ after damage or injury.
- After the nerve graft, doctors hope the fibers will reinnervate the paralyzed muscle.
- Used in medical and biological contexts to describe the functional connection between nerves and tissues.
Variants and Related Words
- Innervation (n): The distribution or supply of nerves to a body part; the process of being innervated.
- The innervation of the hand is highly complex.
- Innerve (v): An older, less common synonym for innervate.
Synonyms
- Stimulate: To rouse to activity or action.
- Activate: To make active or functional.
- Supply: To provide something necessary.
Antonyms
- Denervate: To remove or cut off the nerve supply to an organ or part.
- The experimental procedure will denervate the tissue to study the effects.
Verb
- stimulate to action
- innervate a muscle or a nerve
- supply nerves to (some organ or body part)