023 How Reflexes Work (Knee jerk and eye blink)

http://www.interactive-biology.com - In this video, my wife helps me to demonstrate how reflexes work at the level of the neurons. We look at both the Knee jerk and eye blink reflexes and the mechanism underlying both.

Enjoy!

http://www.interactive-biology.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• knee jerk reflex
• eye blink reflex
• simple reflex arc
• interneurons
• sensory neurons
• motor neurons
• interactive biology

[hoychris]

why are reflexes useful to a clinician for diagnosis?

[InteractiveBiology]

@hoychris Thank you for watching the video. Unfortunately, Leslie is busy at the moment working a lot on improving the site. He is unavailable to answer any questions. We do have a Facebook fan page where you can interact with other readers and get answers to your questions. In the meantime, stay tuned because we have more Biology videos coming very soon!

[tewolde33]

what if you hit your knee and then does not move

[InteractiveBiology]

@tewolde33 All questions are answered in the Interactive Biology forums from now on. Go to the website in the description and then visit the forum. This is to make it as efficient as possible as we have multiple people over there to help answer questions.

All the best

[TutorTom10]

@InteractiveBiology Also, I think you may have mixed up the dorsal/ventral roots and horns; the efferent neuron should enter the dorsal horn and travel along the dorsal root, c.f. the afferent neuron soma should be in the ventral horn and exit via the ventral root. And (not to be picky) but isn't fine movement control more to do with the ratio of motoneurons:muscle fibres, i.e. size of motor units?

[InteractiveBiology]

@TutorTom10 Not sure what I said about dorsal/ventral roots, but my focus wasn't the anatomy - just the physiology. Also, you are right about fine motor control. However, I wasn't dealing with fine motor control in this video. With the eye blink reflex, I was dealing with the ability to stop that reflex from happening. You have more control of the process because there is an interneuron that can be overridden. You have no control over the knee-jerk reflex.

[Skate2bate]

remote control... SOOO GHETO HAHAHAHA

[memyselfq80]

you are one of the best ...thank you so much >>

[hollytom1]

Whoa. Tutor Tom has it backwards. The dorsal horn is SENSORY and receives AFFERENT impulses. The ventral horn is MOTOR and sends EFFERENT impulses.

[ilikedatube]

Press 1:00 repeatedly (sexy ooohh)

[TutorTom10]

@InteractiveBiology That would be awesome! I'll send you a private message so we can chat more.