What is distal and proximal stimulus in psychology?
Distal stimulus refers to the real world event or object that typically is some distance from the body (hence distal). Proximal Stimulus refers to the pattern of stimulus energies that takes its origin at the distal stimulus and finally impinges on the sensory surface of the organism.
What are the three types of stimuli?
excited by three types of stimuli—mechanical, thermal, and chemical; some endings respond primarily to one type of stimulation, whereas other endings can detect all types.
Which reflex is triggered when a stranger suddenly grasps your arm?
Which reflex is triggered when a stranger suddenly grasps your arm? The grasped arm is withdrawn (via the flexor reflex) as the opposite arm pushes you away from the attacker (via crossed-extensor reflex).
Which stimulus causes a muscle to reflexively contract?
A sudden stretch, such as tapping the Achilles’ tendon, causes a reflex contraction in the muscle as the spindles sense the stretch and send an action potential to the motor neurons which then cause the muscle to contract; this particular reflex causes a contraction in the soleus-gastrocnemius group of muscles.
What is the function of muscle spindle?
Functionally, muscle spindles are stretch detectors, i.e. they sense how much and how fast a muscle is lengthened or shortened [19]. Accordingly, when a muscle is stretched, this change in length is transmitted to the spindles and their intrafusal fibers which are subsequently similarly stretched.
What occurs when the muscle spindle is activated?
1. Loading the muscle spindle: When activated the muscle spindle causes the muscle being stretched to generate tension to resist the stretch, so by stretching a muscle immediately prior to a contraction you effectively prime the muscle to create more force for that contraction.
Do muscles have sensory nerves?
Muscles have sensory organs called muscle spindles. Their task is to inform the brain of changes in muscle length. Muscle spindles therefore contain a special type of large diameter nerve filaments that signal stretch of the muscle.