Reflexes And Reflex

* A stretch reflex is a contraction of a muscle when an attached tendon is pulled. Stretch reflexes are important in maintaining proper posture. Stretch reflexes are used to determine which areas of the body the central nervous system are not responding to. For example, if you tap your knee to check for reflex and the leg doesn’t move, you then know that the peripheral nerves that lead to the knee are nonresponsive and/or the brain is not receiving a signal from that particular area.

In this classical conditioning experiment, the tapping of the person’s knee with a clinical hammer is the UCS, as it is a naturally occurring stimulus that elicits the UCR, which in this case is the reflexive knee jerk action. The distinctive sound given out by the buzzer was initially the NS, but eventually became the CS, after 20 to 30 pairings with the UCS within close intervals of 5 seconds during the experiment. It has become a stimulus that is subsequently capable of eliciting a learned reflex response on its own (CR) which was originally an UCR, because it has been paired with the original UCS.

We have a series of reflexes throughout the body that support us and naturally co-ordinate our movements, yet we interfere with these

To conduct your laboratory exercises, use the Laboratory Manual located under Course Content. Read the introduction and the directions for each exercise/experiment carefully before completing the exercises/experiments and answering the questions.

| At birth babies are born with reflexes – such as: * swallowing and sucking * rooting * grasping * startle reflexIn the first few months babies change considerably * gradually sleeping less * looking less curled up and startle less

In addition to testing both males and females, three different age groups including 16-18 year olds, 21-23 year olds and 47-49 year olds will be have their reaction times assessed. Incorporating a range of individuals from teenagers to middle aged people will allow inferences to be made regarding the effect that age has on reaction time. Across the experiments, two other aspects will be varied including using dominant or non-dominant hands

Reflexes are the body's reaction something, reflexes are signals that are sent from your neurans to your brain and your brain processes the information then responds. To test if the difference between voluntary and involuntary effects the reaction time. In this lab the voluntary reaction time was the time between when the hammer hit the table and when the leg moved. The involuntary reaction time in this lab was the time between the time when the hammer hit the knee and the time where the leg moved.

| Reflexes –Sucking, Grasping, Drinking, Eating.Lifting head unaided.Latterly, crawling, rolling over and possibly standing or cruising.

16. The participant population will consist of undergraduate students currently enrolled in psychology courses at Valdosta State University. Approximately 20 participants will perform the experiment. All participants will be at least eighteen years of age. Students will be asked to voluntarily participate in this experiment. If a participant refuses to participate in the experiment then he or she will not be bothered again.

The Materials that were used to measure the experiment where a pen and paper to record the reactions of the subjects being tested, and the subjects themselves.

Afferent muscle stretch reflexes are initiated from muscle spindles9. Other afferent receptors such as joint receptors and skin sensors can generate further input8. The sum of these inputs results in reflexive movement in the absence of efferent signals from higher cortical centers7. Afferent neural input from the muscle spindle stretch receptors connected to the muslces intrafusal fibers enters the spinal cord through the dorsal horn9. They are then capable of diverging in order to take different paths and elicit several coordinated responses to a single stimulus9. The patellar reflex is a monosynaptic stretch reflex because the afferent signals synapse directly onto a motor neuron in the spinal cord9. Tapping the tendon pushes on the tissue, which activates stretch receptors within the muscle9. These afferent neural inputs from the receptors send excitatory action potentials to motor neurons in the spinal cord which, elicit the contraction of the quadriceps, extending the lower leg outwards to compensate for the stretch stimulus experienced9. In contrast, in a polysynaptic pathway, the stretch stimuli send afferent signals to the spinal cord that synapse onto inhibitory interneurons, eliciting the inhibition the antagonist (the hamstrings)9. This reciprocal innervation of the agonist and antagonist allows for the appropriate levels of tension to be developed in both muscles to elicit a smooth coordinated

I found a flat spot on the road for him to perform these tests. I explained to Mr. Jordan to keep his head and body still for the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test, to keep his hands by his side, and his feet together. I instructed him to look at the tip of my finger with his

A number of factors, including the following, may play a role in the reflexes originating from body movements; increase in body temperature, ventilatory response to temperature, epinephrine release, and impulses from the cerebral cortex. Sneezing and coughing are defending reflexes that briefly maintain respiratory activity and can expel

Another example of this is the dive reflex found in mammals. This reflex happens when

The impulse is also instantly received to contract the muscle. The knee jerk is a reflex arc, this is a nerve pathway that is highly involved in a reflex action, also including a sensory nerve and motor nerve with a synapse in-between Just like action potential propagation the impulse conduction only travels in one direction. The receptors are the starting point of the dendrites of the sensory neurons, the impulse conduction regularly starts in the receptors (Patton; Thibodeau;, 2016). The sensory receptors that are in the knee jerk is located in the quadriceps muscles. During the knee reflex only the motor and sensory neurons are involved. The nerve which is generated by stimulation of the stretch receptors travels along the sensory dendrite to its cell body are located in the dorsal root ganglion, a dorsal root ganglion is a cluster of nerve cell bodies which is located in the PNS (Patton; Thibodeau;, 2016). The ganglion root ganglion is also known as the spinal ganglion due to its location (near the spinal