2B Conscious and unconscious responses

• Conscious responses are deliberate and voluntary actions that were intentionally imitated by the brain and performed by the body. Involved in the somatic NS
• Process of conscious response

  1. sensory stimuli makes contact with sensory receptors
  2. sensory neural message is transmitted via afferent pathway through the somatic nervous system and then to the spinal cord, to the brain.
  3. brain processes the sensory information, coordinates and initiates a conscious motor response.
  4. motor neural message is transmitted via efferent pathway in the spinal cord through the somatic nervous to skeletal muscles
  5. skeletal muscles carry out the conscious motor response.
• 1. Spinal reflex response is an unconscious response to dangerous sensory stimuli detected by sensory receptors
• 2. Sensory receptors transmit a message via sensory neurons in the somatic nervous system
• 3. Interneurons at the spinal cord immediately relay a sensory neural signal from a sensory neuron to a motor neuron to initiate an unconscious motor response
• 4. Motor message is transmitted via motor neuron in the somatic nervous system to the skeletal muscles which carry out the unconscious motor response
• 5. Sensory message continues to travel from the spinal cord to the brain via an afferent tract
• 6. This allows the brain to process and register the sensation triggered by the spinal reflex
• The spinal reflex is an unconscious response to dangerous/painful sensory stimuli that is initiated by interneurons in the spinal cord independently of the brain
• Sensory receptors on the person’s skin would detect the sensation...
• This sensory information would be transmitted via sensory neural pathways in the somatic nervous system and afferent tracts in the spinal cord to the brain.