Describe what happens in your nervous system when you touch a hot stove Use the words reflex nerve impulse and nuerons?

Reflex: When you touch a hot stove, receptors in your skin detect the heat and send a signal to your spinal cord.

Nerve Impulse: The spinal cord then sends a signal back to the muscles to pull your hand away. This signal travels along neurons, which are specialized cells in your nervous system that transmit electrical signals.

Neutrons: The signal passes through the neurons as a nerve impulse, which is a rapid change in the electrical potential across the neuron’s membrane. This causes a cascade of chemical and electrical events that result in the transmission of the signal from one neuron to another, ultimately reaching your brain and triggering a conscious awareness of the pain and the reflex to withdraw your hand.

Here’s a more detailed version of what happens in your nervous system:

1. Contact with the stove: When you touch a hot stove, the heat from the stove causes a sudden change in the skin’s temperature. This change in temperature is detected by special receptors in the skin called thermoreceptors.

2. Nerve receptors generate signals: The activation of thermoreceptors triggers the generation of nerve signals known as action potentials. These signals are electrical impulses that can propagate along the long extensions of the neurons known as axons.

3. Signals travel through sensory neurons: The axons of the sensory neurons carrying these action potentials form part of the peripheral nervous system and transmit signals toward the spinal cord.

4. Synaptic transmission in the spinal cord: Inside the spinal cord, the axons of the sensory neurons form specialized junctions called synapses with other neurons, particularly interneurons. These interneurons then generate new action potentials, relaying the information to the appropriate motor neurons.

5. Motor neurons send signals to muscles: The motor neurons extend from the spinal cord back into the peripheral nervous system and connect with muscle fibers in the hand through specialized junctions known as neuromuscular junctions.

6. Muscle contraction and withdrawal: The action potentials reaching the muscles prompt them to contract rapidly. This contraction causes your hand to move away involuntarily, pulling it back from the hot surface.

This entire sequence of events, from the initial contact with the hot surface to the withdrawal of the hand, happens within a fraction of a second, demonstrating the rapid and protective nature of the reflex response coordinated by your nervous system.