Such habitual actions as breathing, swallowing, sneezing, blinking - occur without control from the side of consciousness, are innate mechanisms, help to survive to a person or an animal and ensure the preservation of a species - all these are unconditioned reflexes.
What is an unconditioned reflex?
I.P. Pavlov, a scientist-physiologist, devoted his life to the study of higher nervous activity. In order to understand what unconditioned human reflexes are, it is important to consider the meaning of the reflex as a whole. Any organism that has a nervous system carries out reflex activity. Reflex is a complex reaction of the organism to internal and external stimuli, carried out in the form of a reflex response.
Unconditioned reflexes are genetic congenital stereotypic reactions, in response to changes in internal homeostasis or environmental conditions. For the emergence of unconditioned reflexes of special conditions, these are automatic reactions that can fail only in severe diseases. Examples of unconditioned reflexes:
- withdrawal of the limb from contact with hot;
- knee-jerk reflex;
- sucking, grasping at newborns;
- swallowing;
- salivation;
- sneezing;
- blinking.
What is the role of unconditioned reflexes in human life?
The evolution of man over the centuries has been accompanied by a change in the genetic apparatus, the selection of attributes that are necessary for survival in the surrounding nature. The nervous system became highly organized matter. What is the significance of unconditioned reflexes? The answers can be found in the works of the physiologists of Sechenov, I.P. Pavlova, P.V. Simonov. Scientists distinguished several important functions:
- maintenance of homeostasis (self-regulation of the internal environment) in the optimal balance;
- adaptation and adaptation of the organism (mechanisms of thermoregulation, respiration, digestion);
- preservation of specific features;
- reproduction.
Signs of unconditioned reflexes
The main sign of unconditioned reflexes is innate. Nature has taken care that all important for life in this world functions are reliably recorded on the nucleotide chain of DNA. Other characteristics:
- preliminary learning and control of consciousness are not required;
- are specific;
- strictly specific - arise when in contact with a specific stimulus;
- constant reflex arcs in the lower parts of the central nervous system;
- most unconditioned reflexes persist throughout life;
- a set of unconditioned reflexes helps the organism, in the early stages of development, to adapt to the environment;
- are the basic basis for the onset of conditioned reflexes.
Types of unconditioned reflexes
Unconditioned reflexes have a different type of classification, I.P. Pavlov first distributed them to: simple, complex and complex. In the distribution of unconditioned reflexes by the factor occupied by each creature of certain space-time regions, P.V. Simonov divided the types of unconditioned reflexes into 3 classes:
- Role unconditioned reflexes - are manifested in interaction with other intraspecific representatives. These are reflexes: sexual, territorial behavior, parental (maternal, paternal), the phenomenon of empathy .
- Unconditioned vital reflexes are all basic needs of the organism, deprivation or dissatisfaction of which leads to death. Provide individual safety: drinking, food, sleep and wakefulness, indicative, defensive.
- Unconditioned reflexes of self - development - are included when mastering a new, unfamiliar (knowledge, space):
- reflex of overcoming or resistance (freedom);
- game;
- imitative.
Types of inhibition of unconditioned reflexes
Excitation and inhibition are important innate functions of higher nervous activity that ensure coordinated activity of the organism and without which this activity would be chaotic. Braking unconditioned reflexes in the process of evolution turned into a complex response of the nervous system - inhibition. I.P. Pavlov distinguished 3 types of inhibition:
- Unconditional braking (external) - the reaction "What is it?" Allows you to assess whether the situation is dangerous or not. In the future, with frequent manifestation of an external stimulus that does not carry danger, inhibition does not occur.
- Conditional (internal) inhibition - the functions of conditioned inhibition ensure the extinction of reflexes that have lost their value, help distinguish between useful and reinforcing signals from useless ones, and form a delayed reaction to the stimulus.
- Beyond (protective) inhibition is a safety unconditional mechanism provided by nature, triggered by excessive fatigue, agitation, severe injuries (fainting, coma).
What is the difference between conditioned reflexes and unconditioned reflexes?
The above material dealt mainly with the topic, which reflexes are called unconditioned, but there is another category of reflexes-conditional ones, which are no less important for the species. Values and differences of conditioned reflexes from unconditioned ones:
- are accumulated throughout life
- different reflexes can form within the same species;
- unstable - arise, become fixed, fade away;
- reflex arcs in the higher sections of the central nervous system;
What is the difference between an instinct and an unconditioned reflex?
The value of unconditioned reflexes such as the orienting, defensive genital is of great value in preserving the offspring and the species as a whole. Such reflexes are called instincts. Congenital behavioral programs, instincts in contrast to unconditioned simple reflexes: sneezing, blinking, are complex successive chains of unconditioned reflexes.