Unconscious and Conscious Responses

Conscious Response

A reaction to a sensory stimulus that involves awareness.

• Involves the spinal cord and the brain

• Involuntary

Example: dog sitting on an empty couch.

1. Sensory neurons carry sensory information of seeing an empty couch.

2. Interneurons in the spinal cord send information to the brain.

3. The brain processes this information as a conscious response.

4. The brain sends a neural message to the skeletal muscles of the dog’s lower end to sit on the couch via motor neurons.

Unconscious Response

A reaction to a sensory stimulus that doesn’t involve awareness.

• Only involves the spinal cord.

• Involuntary

Spinal Reflex

An involuntary process that serves an adaptive function to prevent damage/improve survival.

• The information is not sent to the brain first, but crosses over via interneurons in the spinal cord to enable motor neurons to activate the reflex response.

Example: Removing a hand from a hot pan.

1. Sensory neurons carry the sensory information of feeling a hot pan to the spinal cord.

2. Interneurons in the spinal cord relay information via motor neurons to initiate the unconscious motor response of removing the hand from the pan.