Reflex Lab Answers:
1.
A nerve pathway is the route that neurons take throughout the nervous system, usually ending
with connection to an effector.
2. The 5 steps of a reflex arc:
(1) stimulus
(2) sensory neuron
(3) association neuron (4) motor neuron (5) effector
3. Some benefits of conditioned reflexes are that this can create responses to paired stimuli. The
response to two stimuli at once can be protective. (e.g.: pairing the sound and light together—
and then the pupil responding with constriction as just the bell is rung)
4. Reflex testing is an important diagnostic tool because distorted, exaggerated, or absent reflexes
can signal a problem with the nervous system.
5. Autonomic reflexes are not subject to your conscious control.
6. Monosynaptic reflexes involve only two neurons, sensory and motor. Polysynaptic involve more
than 2 neurons. Most reflexes are polysynaptic.
7. A consensual response is where a reflex response is observed on one side of the body, when the
other side has been stimulated. For example, if light is shone into one eye, both pupils will
constrict.
8. Babinski’s sign indicates damage to the spinal cord (or incomplete myelination if seen in infants).
9. If the pupillary reflex did not exist, the eye could become damaged if too much light was let in.
10. Pupil size is controlled by the iris muscle.