Question

Does brain has any role to play in reflex actions?? In our book it is written brain has no role and in another book it is written reflexes controlled by brain are called cerebral reflexes Which is right??

Answer 1

Reflex actions are sudden responses. It is involuntary action which does not involve thinking. For example, when we touch a hot object, we withdraw our hand immediately without thinking. The sensory nerves that detect the heat are connected to the nerves that move the muscles of the hand. Such a connection of detecting the signal from the nerves (input) and responding to it quickly (output) is known as reflex arc. Reflex arcs are formed in the spinal cord but the information is still sent to the brain. The brain doesn’t have a significant response to it.