Biology 12

Section Assignment 4.1

Part A: Reflex Ares Laboratory Lab Report
Willis Lee
Hypothesis
1. If the achilles tendon is hit by a large wooden spoon, then the foot will move
downward due to the reflex.
2. If the leg just below the kneecap is tapped, then the lower leg will jerk forward from
the knee.
3. If an object moves closer to the person, then the diameter of pupils will increase.

Procedure

Ankle jerk reflex:

1. Sit down on a chair with shoes and socks removed
2. Bend one foot upward as far as possible.
3. Gently but sharply strike the back of the Achilles tendon located on the back of the
lower leg with a large wooden spoon.
Patellar reflex:
1. Sit down on a high chair so the legs will be dangling
2. Gently but sharply tap the leg just below the knee cap with a large wooden spoon.
Accommodation reflex:
1. Prepare an object such as a textbook. Then, sit down on a chair.
2. Focus on the textbook and slowly move it away from the person.
3. Observe what happens with the diameter of pupils.

Observations and Results:

There was no unusual occurrence when the experiment went through. The results fully
supported the hypothesis. When the achilles tendon was hit, the foot moved downward.
When the leg was hit, the leg jerked forward. Also, when the textbook moved closer to
the person, the diameter of the pupils increased; when the textbook moved away from the
person, the diameter of the pupils decreased.

The patellar reflex helps maintain posture and balance which allows one to walk without
consciously thinking about each step. The reflex arcs allow quick responses to immediate
threats that can be avoided by reflexive actions. This is why the patellar reflex helps to
avoid any possible injury because the reflex allows very quick responses.

Striking the patellar tendon with a wooden spoon stimulates the stretch sensory receptors
that trigger an afferent impulse in a sensory nerve fiber. The sensory neuron synapses
 directly with a motor neuron that conducts an efferent impulse to the muscle which
triggers contraction. This contraction causes the leg to jerk and there is no interneuron in
the pathway leading to construction of the muscle.

The testing of patellar reflex incorporates an assessment of the function and interplay of
both sensory and motor pathways. Normal reflexes require that every aspect of the
system function normally. Disorders in the sensory limb will prevent or delay the
transmission of the impulse to the spinal cord. This causes the resulting reflex to be
diminished or completely absent. Therefore, testing patellar reflex could be used to judge
the extent of injury because it shows whether other parts of the legs are injured or not.

The most reflexes are overpowered by the brain. When in a danger such as holding on a
rock at the cliff when the person is falling down, it is better for the brain to overpower the
reflex so they can hold on to it more tight. If the brain cannot overpower the reflex, the
withdrawal reflex will cause the hand to release the rock because holding onto the rick
could be very painful. Therefore, this will make the person fall down.

Conclusion
In summation, the hypothesis that were stated were supported by the observations in this
experiment. When the achilles tendon was hit by a large wooden spoon, the ankle that
was stretched upward moved downward. When the leg was hit, the leg jerked quickly.
When the textbook was moved away from the person, the diameter of pupils decreased.
These observations were what was expected before starting this experiment. The reflex is
important in the body as it prevents possible injuries. However, sometimes the brain
needs to overpower the reflex in situations like holding onto a rope or a rock when the
person is falling.

Biology 12
Section Assignment 4.1 Part B
The Brain
Willis Lee
1. The brain weighs 3 pounds or 130 to 140 grams for an adult.

2. There are several functions of the brain: a) brain controls the fine movements, sensation,
thought process, vision and behavior. b) The brain manages balancing of the body and
secreting hormones to the body.

3. There are two main divisions of the nervous system which are the central nervous system
(CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS processes information
received from various sensory neurons. It is consist of the brain and spinal cord. The
brain basically interprets information from the eyes, nose (smell), ears (sound), tongue
(taste), and skin (touch), as well as from internal organs such as the stomach, liver, heart
and lungs. The spinal cord is known be the highway for communication between the body
and the brain. The peripheral nervous system is consisted of everything else. It can be
subdivided into two divisions: the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. Both control
motor function, and they determine how our muscles and organs respond to output from
the CNS. The somatic nervous system is voluntary, which means that it controls skeletal
muscles. The autonomic nervous system is involuntary that controls smooth muscles and
glands. It can be also subdivided into sympathetic motor system and parasympathetic
motor system. Sympathetic motor system has noradrenaline that controls fight or flight
responses. In contrast, parasympathetic motor system has acetylcholine that controls
relaxing responses.

4. The three examples of where external environmental stimuli result in an ANS response
are smelling food, getting scared, and walking at night. Specifically, smelling food
stimulates salivary gland and parasympathetic motor system. This causes the releases of
several hormones that will prepare us for the process of digestion. When you get scared
by meeting the angry teachers, you are exposed to situations that are considered fight or
flight response. Therefore, it is the sympathetic motor system that is responding. When
you walk at night, the diameter of pupils get increased. Parasympathetic motor system
causes the constriction of pupils.

5. As you see the diagram below, there are four major lobes of the cerebral hemisphere,
which are frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital.

- Frontal lobe: involved in muscle control and reasoning. It allows you to think
critically.
- Parietal lobe: receives sensory information from our skin and skeletal muscles. It also
associated with our sense of taste.
 - Occipital lobe: receives information from the eyes. It is the visual processing center
of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex
and it contains the primary visual cortex.
- Temporal lobe: receives information from the ears. It is involved in auditory
perception and is home to the primary auditory cortex.

6. The brain stem is consisted of the midbrain, the pons, and medulla oblongata. The
functions of medulla oblongata are:
- Controls a persons heart rate and the force of the hearts contraction
- It has a vasomotor center which is able to adjust a persons blood pressure by
controlling the diameter of blood vessels.
- It has a respiratory center which controls the rate and depth of a persons breathing.
- It has a reflex center which controls vomiting, coughing, hiccupping, and swallowing.
Any information from the body to the cerebellum and cerebrum must also pass the
brains stem, which means that damage to the brainstem can cause a stop in breathing
or heart contraction.

7. If the brain stem is damaged, the patient might not be able to breath due to the damage of
breathing control function. Moreover, if there is a heart failure, the left ventricle would
not pump enough blood throughout the body. It indicates that oxygen carried by
hemoglobin would not go to the brain, and it would cause faint. There are two examples
of common circumstances where the brain is deprived of oxygen are smoking and
atherosclerosis. Carbon monoxide that is released by smoking binds to hemoglobin and
causes oxygen to be unable to bind to the hemoglobin. It eventually causes a decrease in
an oxygen level. Furthermore, the atherosclerosis would cause lipids build up in the
artery which makes the oxygen level to be reduced.

8. There are many factors that can cause headache, including bacterial infection, viral
infection, and a tumor in the brain.

- Viral infection: Generally, people who have suffered from influenza (commonly
called the flu) have likely dealt with painful headaches that often occur alongside the
viral infection. A flu virus itself often causes a headache due to the resulting fever that
occurs. Encephalitis and meningitis are viruses that affect the brain and both may
cause severe headaches.
- Bacterial infection: bacterial infections such as streptococcus bacteria can cause
headaches. For example, women who have frequent urinary tract infections and take
antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin may have more migraines.
- Tumor: it can also cause the serious headache because the tumor can lead to cancer.

9. These are possible benefits to the following ancestors:

- Goosebumps or gooseflesh cause the hairs to stand on end, which in mammals with
thicker fur creates a hair pattern that may better protect against injury in times of
danger or cold temperature
- In a personal perspective, yawning is not vestigial. However, it was observed that
yawning draws an influx of cold air that cools off the brain, which consumes 15% of
the bodys total energy use and consequently grows quite hot. People tend to yawn
when they do not have enough oxygen in their brain. When people around the person
who is yawning may think that they do not have enough oxygen too.
- The urge to vomit when witnessing others vomit was developed to assist whole
communities in clearing their stomachs before fully ingesting potentially harmful
food, which human communities have for countless millennia ingested potentially
harmful food from the same source. Therefore, vomiting when witnessing others
vomit can be beneficial to prevent any possible illness due to harmful food digested.