Brain and Mind - Reflexes

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   avoid      back      birth      carried      caused      connecting      effector      enough      enters      experience      food      Muscles      no      Pavlov      reflex      reflex arc      reflexes      stay      stimuli      theory      they   
Newborn babies are chekced for a set of newborn . Many are present only for a short time after . Reflexes are fast, unconscious responses to , to help harmful chemicals and temperatures, and to help the organsim alive.
In a reflex, the receptor, processing centre and are linked by neutrons.
Each reflex has its own pathway called a . This includes a sensory neuron the receptor to the spinal cord and brain, and a motor neuron back to the effector.
For example, light the eye and stimulates receptor cells. Nerve impulses are along the sensory neuron to the brain. The information is procesed in the brain and nerve impulses are carried along a motor neuron to muscles in the iris. contract to make the iris smaller or larger.

One about Sudden infant Death Syndrome is that it is by immature reflexes, resulting in the baby not getting oxygen.

Some reflexes can be controlled. In these cases a second nerve impulse is sent to the brain and down to cause a muscle movement to prevent the .

Conditioned reflexes are learned responses. One classical example was with his dogs. Every time he rang a bell were fed. After a while he removed the food, but the dogs still produced saliva in preparation for the . Other animals naturally learn new behaviour - for example a newborn chick will autonmatically crouch when a leaf falls, but an adult chicken will know that the leaf causes danger and will not crouch.

Human behaviour is mostly due to responses that develop with .