Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Medicine. Anything human!
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
With great response to my post discovering how and why we die in a philosophical and scientifical context, i am here again to discuss on reflexes. particularly Red is Stop, Green is Go.
Why not red is go, green is stop. can we adapt?
A reflex action or reflex is a biological control system linking stimulus to response and mediated by a reflex arc. Reflexes can be built-in or learned. It occurs very quickly before thinking. Before the message is sent to the brain, the spinal cord senses the sensory stimulus, and sends a signal (action potential) to an effector organ, (muscle) to create an immediate action to counter the stimulus. For example, a person stepping on a sharp object would initiate the reflex action through the creation of a stimulus, (pain) within specialized sense receptors located in the skin tissue of the foot. The resulting stimulus would be transmitted through afferent, or sensory neurons and processed at the lower end of the spinal cord, part of the central nervous system. This stimulus is processed by an interneuron to create an immediate response to pain by initiating a motor (muscular) response which is acted upon by muscles of the leg, retracting the foot away from the object. This activity would occur as the pain is arriving in the brain which would process a more cognitive evaluation of the situation.
A simple reflex is entirely automatic and involves no learning.
An example is the escape reflex (e.g., the sudden withdrawal of a hand in response to a pain stimulus), or the patellar reflex (the jerking of a leg when the kneecap is tapped). Sensory cells (receptors) in the stimulated body part send signals to the spinal cord along a sensory nerve cell. Within the spine a reflex arc switches the signals straight back to the muscles of the body (in this case the arm or the leg) (effectors) via an intermediate nerve cell and then a motor nerve cell; contraction of the leg occurs, and the muscle contracts (the arm or leg jerks upwards). Only three nerve cells are involved, and the brain is only aware of the response after it has taken place. Such reflex arcs are particularly common in animals, and have a high survival value, enabling organisms to take rapid action to avoid potential danger.
A conditioned reflex involves the modification of a reflex action in response to experience (learning). A stimulus that produces a simple reflex response becomes linked with another, possibly unrelated, stimulus. For example, a dog may salivate (a reflex action) when it sees its owner remove a tin-opener from a drawer because it has learned to associate that stimulus with the stimulus of being fed.
Now the question is. When we see the color red, we tend to be cautious or stop. when we see green, we tend to move on, we r relaxed. is this simple or conditioned reflex? how you guys answer will lead to my next question.
Well, a conditioned reflex is part of the Classical Conditioning http://www.as.wvu.edu/~sbb/comm221/chapters/pavlov.htm
It's impossible to consider the decision to go when green and stop when red as a simple reflex. I mean, it's obvious that you decide whether you want to move or you don't. Otherwise, when someone presented a green light you would move unconsciously. No way. You really do think about it before action.
Though I'm not sure about it as a conditioned reflex. I'll think about it.
I do think there's some social learning. You know, in part we tend to think that red is to be aware and green to be ok cause of social environment. It have always been like that. Everyone thinks like that.
There's something interesting though.
In the 1995 TV Serie "Sliders", in the very first episode, pilot, Quinn travels to a parallel world where actually red is go and green is stop.
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests