Sensorimotor

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Involving both the senses that receive stimuli and the muscles that produce physical responses to them
2. Describing the neural processes that link perception of the environment with the control of bodily movement
3. Relating to the combined functioning of sensory input and motor output in the nervous system and body

Etymology: The word is a blend of "sensory" and "motor," and its first recorded use dates to 1855. Its two halves carry the whole meaning: "sensory" comes from Latin "sensorius," relating to the senses, while "motor" comes from Latin "motor," a mover, from "movere," to move. Put together, the term describes the link between perceiving something and acting on it, where a signal from the senses produces a physical response. The coinage took the sensory and motor nerve functions that physiologists were studying in the nineteenth century and fused them into one descriptor. Because the blend names a connection rather than a single organ, it is used for processes such as coordinating what the eyes see with what the hands do.