reflex
Sign in to saveIn biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. thumb|429x429px|The simplest reflex is initiated by a stimulus, which activates an afferent nerve. The signal is then passed to a response neuron, which generates a response. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs via neural pathways in the nervous system called reflex arcs. A stimulus initiates a neural signal, which is carried to a synapse. The signal is then transferred across the synapse to
AI overview
A reflex is an automatic, nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus that your body produces without you having to think about it, controlled by your nervous system. Reflexes matter because they allow organisms to respond quickly to potentially dangerous situations or stimuli through direct neural pathways called reflex arcs, without waiting for conscious deliberation.
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Article
13 sectionsContents
- Types of human reflexes
- Autonomic vs skeletal reflexes
- Myotatic reflexes
- Tendon reflex
- Reflexes involving cranial nerves
- Reflexes usually only observed in human infants
- Other kinds of reflexes
- Grading
- Reflex modulation
- Other reflexes
- History
- See also
- References
In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. thumb|429x429px|The simplest reflex is initiated by a stimulus, which activates an afferent nerve. The signal is then passed to a response neuron, which generates a response. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs via neural pathways in the nervous system called reflex arcs. A stimulus initiates a neural signal, which is carried to a synapse. The signal is then transferred across the synapse to a motor neuron, which evokes a target response. These neural signals do not always travel to the brain, so many reflexes are an automatic response to a stimulus that does not receive or need conscious thought.
Many reflexes are fine-tuned to increase organism survival and self-defense. This is observed in reflexes such as the startle reflex, which provides an automatic response to an unexpected stimulus, and the feline righting reflex, which reorients a cat's body when falling to ensure safe landing. The simplest type of reflex, a short-latency reflex, has a single synapse, or junction, in the signaling pathway. Long-latency reflexes produce nerve signals that are transduced across multiple synapses before generating the reflex response.