Neurons
This part of the neuron receives incoming signals from other cells.
Answer: What are dendrites?
These sensory receptors detect changes in muscle length and rate of stretch.
What are muscle spindles?
The H-reflex is an electrically evoked version of this natural spinal reflex.
What is the stretch reflex?
This tendon tap commonly tests the stretch reflex at the knee.
What is the patellar tendon reflex?
A monosynaptic reflex includes this many synapses between sensory and motor neurons.
What is one?
This is the electrical signal that travels down the axon to the terminal.
What is an action potential?
These receptors monitor muscle tension and prevent excessive force.
What are Golgi tendon organs?
In the H-reflex, the Ia afferent is stimulated directly, bypassing this part of the reflex loop.
What is the muscle spindle?
The stretch reflex is triggered by activation of this sensory receptor.
What is the muscle spindle?
This specific afferent fiber forms the monosynaptic connection with the alpha-motor neuron.
What is the Ia afferent?
This insulating material speeds up AP conduction along axons.
What is myelin?
This type of afferent fiber carries rapid stretch information from spindles.
What are Ia afferents?
Increasing stimulation intensity causes this secondary response to appear after the H-wave.
What is the M-wave?
The stretch reflex causes the agonist muscle to contract and the antagonist muscle to relax through this mechanism.
What is reciprocal inhibition?
This is the primary example of a monosynaptic reflex in humans.
What is the stretch reflex?
Ion movement through these channels causes depolarization during an AP.
What are voltage-gated sodium channels?
Activation of GTOs leads to this type of reflex response in the agonist muscle.
What is autogenic inhibition?
This phenomenon occurs when increasing stimulation causes the H-wave size to decrease while the M-wave increases.
What is antidromic collision?
Stretch reflex latency is short because the pathway involves this many synapses.
What is one synapse?
Monosynaptic reflex arcs do NOT require this part of the nervous system to function.
What is the brain (or supraspinal input)?
This term describes how neurons encode stimulus intensity by firing rate rather than AP size.
What is rate coding?
Gamma-motor neurons regulate this property of the spindle to maintain sensitivity during movement.
What is spindle intrafusal fiber tension (or sensitivity)?
The H-reflex is often used to assess this type of neural pathway excitability.
What is spinal (alpha-motor neuron) excitability?
The stretch reflex plays a key role in this function during gait.
What is postural stability OR dynamic limb control?
The speed of a monosynaptic reflex is largely due to these two characteristics of the afferent fibers.
What are large diameter and heavy myelination?