Reflexes-B6

(notes taken from the CGP revision guides)

• Reflexes are involuntary responses.
• Reflexes are rapid and automatic responses to certain stimuli.
• Reflexes are quick because you don't think about them - they are involuntary.
• Many reflexes are there to protect you from damage e.g. pulling your hand off a hot object.
• Many animals also depend on reflexes for things like finding food or a mate.
• The route taken by the information in a reflex is called a reflex arc.
• The reflex arc goes through the Central Nervous System.
• The neurones in reflex arcs go through the spinal cord or through an unconscious part of the brain.
• When a stimulus is detected by receptors, an impulse is set along a sensory neurone to the CNS.
• In the CNS the sensory neurone passes on the message to another type of neurone - a relay neurone.
• …