Reflex Lab

In the reflex lab, we tested different reflexes on our lab partners. These reflexes included the photo pupillary reflex, the knee-jerk (patellar) reflex, the blink reflex, the plantar reflex, and our general response time in reaction to a stimulus. In essence, a reflex occurs on an arc, the most simplistic one being monosynaptic. That means the reflex has only two neurons: a sensory neuron and a motor neuron. Most reflexes, however, tend to be polysynaptic, containing multiple relay neurons in between. Most sensory neurons synapse in the spinal cord rather than the brain, allowing for a quick reaction time without the need for transferring information to the brain.
Claims Evidence Reasonings:
The photo pupillary reflex is when the pupil dilates in response to a changing environment. The evidence of this reflex is visible in the video we took of Michelle's eye after shining a flashlight into her eye that had been deprived of light for two minutes prior. Her pupil clearly increases size. This is a response that controls the amount of light entering the eye and adjusts rapidly to quickly adapt to a changing external environment, allowing for humans to see faster to react to any threats.
The patellar reflex is a contraction of the thigh muscle in response to a light tap below the kneecap. We know that a mechanoreceptor sensory receptor felt the pressure of the tap and in turn, through a monosynaptic reflex to the spinal cord, the thigh muscle contracted to kick the foot forward. We saw this happen after Hayley and I took turns tapping each other below the knee, and each time our feet involuntarily lifted. We found out that this occurs as a way to allow humans to catch their balance: the contraction of the quads puts the torso back upright during a falling motion.
The blink reflex is the closing of the eyelids in response to a rapidly approaching object, whether it touches the eye or not. When I threw the cotton at Hayley, she not only blinked, but she flinched too. Same with when I pretended to punch her. ;) The reasoning for this reflex is so that no foreign objects get in the eye.
The plantar reflex is the clenching of your toes when something drags along the bottom of your foot. When Hayley dragged her pen across the sole of my foot, I not only giggled and squirmed as I am severely ticklish, but my toes also clenched inward. I think the reasoning for this is that when your foot feels the ground while you're running, your toes clench downward to allow for more grip on the ground to propel you forward in your run.
Our response time was the time it took to react to a stimulus, in this case, a falling ruler. Hayley had the faster average response time, at 0.20 seconds. However, after we introduced texting into the experiment, both of our reaction times slowed significantly, with hers slowing to 0.30 seconds. This is because it's extremely difficult to multitask and devote attention to both texting and catching the ruler.