EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -The anatomical pathway of a reflex is called the reflex arc. It consists of an afferent (or sensory) nerve, usually one or more interneurons within the central nervous system, and an efferent (motor, secretory, or secreto-motor) nerve.

Detailed explanation-2: -Spinal Cord is the center that controls reflex action. Reflex actions are actions that are carried out quickly in response to a stimulus and thus do not involve any thinking, and thus are under the control of spinal cord.

Detailed explanation-3: -In a reflex arc, an action potential can bypass the brain for processing and uses dedicated neural pathways for faster processing. When a stimulus (A) is encountered, the signal from that stimulus will travel up the sensory neuron (B, in green) to the spinal column (C).

Detailed explanation-4: -What kind of neuron is not a required element of the simple reflex arc? The correct answer is interneurons. The interneuron associates the motor and the sensory neurons and is present in complex reflex circuits. However, in simple monosynaptic reflexes, only two neurons are involved which are sensory and motor neurons.