Reflexes That We Barely Notice While Walking

Reflexes That We Barely Notice While Walking

A reflex is an involuntary response to a stimulus. This reflex involves organs (eg. skeletal muscle), its nerve supply as the conducting pathway, as well as the spinal cord. It is important to understand two interesting properties of a reflex.
 (1) Law Of Reciprocal Innervation - this means that flexor and extensor reflexes of the same limb cannot be made to contract at the same time. For example, in walking, when one leg flexes (due to the activity of the flexor muscles), the extensor muscles of that same leg are inhibited to facilitate flexion and not to cause extension.

(2) Crossed Extensor Reflex - still in walking, when one leg flexes, it will cause the opposite leg to inhibit the flexor muscles and allow the extensor muscles to contract (try walking around and as you flex one leg, the opposite will be extended to support your body upright). Can you imagine how we would look like when walking if these reflexes are absent
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