Steps
A tendon reflex operates as follows:
- As the tension applied to a tendon increases, the Golgi tendon organ (sensory receptor) is stimulated (depolarized to threshold).
- Nerve impulses (action potentials) arise and propagate into the spinal cord along a sensory neuron.
- Within the spinal cord (integrating center), the sensory neuron activates an inhibitory interneuron that makes a synapse with a motor neuron.
- The inhibitory neurotransmitter inhibits (hyperpolarizes) the motor neuron, which then generates fewer nerve impulses.
- The muscle relaxes and relieves excess tension.
Read more about this topic: Golgi Tendon Reflex
Famous quotes containing the word steps:
“Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design;—and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I lie and wait for morning, and the birds,
The first steps going down the unswept street,
Voices of girls with scarves around their heads.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“They were steps for me, and I climbed up over them—to do so I needed to go on past them. But they supposed I wanted to settle down on them.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)