the.com/reflex
Your body's autopilot, making genius decisions before your brain even buys a ticket.
means An automatic, involuntary response to a stimulus that happens without conscious thought, like your knee kicking when tapped or your hand jerking back from a hot stove.
from From the Latin 'reflexus,' the past participle of 'reflectere,' meaning 'to bend back' — from 're-' (back) plus 'flectere' (to bend), the same root that gives us 'reflect.' Originally the word described light or heat being thrown back, and only later did physiologists borrow it for the way a nerve signal 'bends back' from a stimulus into an action, without ever troubling the brain for permission.
- speed
- Reflex arcs bypass the brain entirely for speed
- spinal genius
- Your spinal cord decides, then tells your brain
- knee jerk
- That tap test checks a real spinal circuit
- blink rate
- Reflex blinks fire in under 100 milliseconds
- primitive remnants
- Babies grasp with reflexes inherited from ape ancestors
patellar reflex — knee-jerk response when doctor taps below kneecap, fastest human reflex at 17-20 milliseconds
corneal reflex — eye blink when cornea is touched, protective reflex present from birth
withdrawal reflex — pulling hand away from hot surface in under 100 milliseconds, faster than conscious thought