What is a reflex action?
Define Reflex Action
Reflex action can be termed as the quick and sudden response of the body towards a stimulus. This reaction is controlled by the spinal cord. Let’s consider a situation. If our hands are placed on some hot substances, we would suddenly withdraw our hands. This action is known as a reflex action. Here, the necessary time for evaluation of the stimuli by the brain is not received. The impulses received by the sensory neurons are transmitted to the interneurons inside the spinal cord. The motor neurons create the sudden involuntary response known as the reflex action.
– Written by Edutuber Mallu
Reflex is a word we use very commonly when we talk about some sudden action in response to something in the environment. A common idea is that we do something without thinking about it or without feeling in control of a reaction.
Take the example of touching a flame, which is an urgent and dangerous situation for us or, in fact, for any animal. How would you respond to this? There are two choices: either we can wait to feel the pain and think how to react, but then we would have been hurt, or we could think of a sudden action. Now, how can our body perform a sudden action without thinking about it? The answer depends on how we think, as thinking is a complex action. In this case, it is no surprise that the thinking tissue in a body consists of dense networks of interactively arranged neurones. It is present in the forward end of the skull and receives signals from all over the body, which it thinks about before responding to them. To receive these signals, this thinking part of the brain in the skull must be connected to nerves coming from various parts of the body. Similarly, if this part of the brain is instructing muscles to move, nerves must carry the signal back to different parts of the body. If all of this is to be done when we touch a hot object, it may take enough time for us to get burned.
So rather than thinking about the sensation of heat if the nerves that feel heat, is connected to the nerves that move muscles more simply and quickly the process of catching the signal of burn and responding to it by an quick and effective action might be completed quickly such a connection is commonly called a reflex action.
– Written by Aruja
