Hot Burner Case Study

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Rachel 's hand immediately moved away from the hot burner due to an automatic reflex and this prevented her from burning herself. The skin receptors in her hand was stimulated and then nerve impulse were sent to the central nervous system through the sensory neurons this is where the brain coordinates the response but not always this is known as the reflex action and in Rachel 's case her hand instantly moved from the hot burner without to much thinking.(Bbc.co.uk, 2017) In this type of automatic reflex actions are overseen by combination of neurons called the reflex arcs. In the spinal cord, the nerve impulses move from the sensory neurons to the interneurons and signals are then sent to the motor neurons which project out the spinal cord to stimulate the effector to contract like instantly moving your hand away from the hot burner this is known as the reflex arc (Owlcation, 2015).The reflex in which the hand immediately moves away from the stove is known as the polysynaptic reflex, this is a spinal reflex which is intended to protect the body from damaging the stimuli leading to stimulation of sensory and motor neurons. {(Boundless, 2017). …show more content…

Leading the afferent neurons to enter the dorsal nerve root of the spinal cord, the stimulus is passed onto the efferent neuron to reach the efferent pathway to reach the effector organ in Rachel’s case it’s the muscles in the arm leading to hand instantly being pulled back. The brain is not involved in the reflex actions as it will take more time for the impulses to travel to and from the brain. The afferent neurons taking the causal stimulus to the CNS,the spinal cord, the efferent neurons, the exciter neurons and the action performed in response to the stimulus altogether create the reflex arc.(YouTube,

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