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reflex |
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| An innate and automatic type of nervous reaction characterized by its rapidity. Most reflexes are of survival significance, such as the blinking of the eyelid or the withdrawal of a hand from a hot object, but are also involved with posture, as in the knee-jerk reflex. The rapidity of reflexes arises because the nerve impulses involved pass through a minimum number of nerve cells — usually three (two in the knee jerk), forming a reflex arc. The reflex arc links a sensory nerve fibre, via a relay fibre in the spinal cord, to a motor nerve fibre which initiates the response. The action thus does not require conscious thought.See nervous system. |
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| Other Terms : Triassic | limestone | mass decrement
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