AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -If you touch something that is very hot, your hand moves away quickly before you even feel the pain. You don’t have to think about it because the response is a reflex that does not involve the brain. A reflex is a rapid, unlearned, involuntary (automatic) response to a stimulus (change in the environment).

Detailed explanation-2: -When a message comes into the brain from anywhere in the body, the brain tells the body how to react. For example, if you touch a hot stove, the nerves in your skin shoot a message of pain to your brain. The brain then sends a message back telling the muscles in your hand to pull away.

Detailed explanation-3: -A somatic reflex is an involuntary response to a stimulus, such as pulling one’s hand away after touching a hot stove. The nervous system is split into the central nervous system (i.e., the brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (i.e., nervous system outside of the brain and spinal cord).

Detailed explanation-4: -The muscle, known as the effector, contracts and pulls the hand away from the hot stove. The hand has now moved away from the hot stove to protect itself. The reflex arc is an automatic response that helps protect the human body. It is a quick response that does not use the brain.

Detailed explanation-5: -Impulses from the sensory cortex are conducted over interneurons to the prefrontal cortex of the cerebrum to be “recorded” as memories that associate the sight of a hot stove with pain.