Stimulus response

• Conscious response


  Reaction to a sensory stimulus that involves awareness
• Conscious responses


  • Initiated by the brain
  • Voluntary, goal directed, intentional
  • Can be controlled
  • Deliberate
• Process of a conscious motor response

  1. Sensory stimulus encounters sensory receptors

  2. Sensory information transmitted via sensory neural pathway in somatic nervous system to CNS

  3. Brain receives, processes information and coordinates response

  4. Motor information transmitted via motor neural pathway in somatic nervous system to skeletal muscle

  5. Skeletal muscle carries out conscious motor response
• Stimulus-response pathway


  The process of a conscious motor response
• Unconscious response


  Reaction to sensory stimulus that does not involve awareness
• Unconscious responses


  • Involuntary, without conscious effort
  • Unintentional, automatic
  • Performed by body independently of brain
  • Generally simple responses
• Process of an unconscious reflex response

  Spinal reflex example
• Summary of conscious and unconscious responses

  • Conscious responses: Involve awareness, more complex, require conscious input from brain
  • Unconscious responses: Do not involve awareness, simple, can occur without conscious input from brain