Sunday, March 12, 2017

Are coughing, eye-blinking, and sneezing examples of visceral or somatic reflexes?

A reflex is an automatic, involuntary movement of our body which is made in response to external stimuli or internal bodily feedback. The purpose of a reflex is to help maintain homeostasis, which is the healthy, normal, and balanced state of our body, by regulating temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, hydration, and other functions of our body.
Homeostasis is regulated and maintained by our body's nervous system, which detects changes in the body and sends electrical nerve impulses to the glands, organs, muscles, and tissues of the body—and by the endocrine system, which secretes hormones into our blood that stimulate specific cells or organs to take a specific action to restore the internal balance of our body.
Visceral reflexes, also known as autonomic reflexes, involve the smooth muscles (the muscles that support blood vessels and internal organs such as the stomach, intestines, and bladder), cardiac muscles, and internal organs of our body, and include normally voluntary reflexes such as sneezing, coughing, salivating, and swallowing.
Somatic reflexes involve our skeletal muscles and our senses. Somatic reflexes can be voluntary or involuntary. We have control of our skeletal muscles, but some somatic reflexes, such as breathing, blinking, and "withdrawal reflexes" which our body makes in reaction to heat or pain, for example, are involuntary reflexes.
In short, sneezing and coughing are visceral reflexes, and blinking is a somatic reflex.

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