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respond to stimuli. The cat may be running because it saw a mouse. Plants
grow towards the sunlight. We start sweating when it is hot and humid.
The ability to react to particular stimulus in a particular situation must
be of great importance in ensuring the survival of the organism.
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There is a sequence of events that brings about responses. They start
from detecting changes in environment (both external and internal) or
stimuli, transmission of the information, processing of the same. Finally
the response will detect and execute the appropriate action.
Let us do the following activity to find more about response to stimuli.
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Activity-1
Holding a falling stick
Take a long scale or stick at least around ½ meter. Keep your
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fingers in holding position as shown in fig-1 . Ask your friend to
hold the stick / scale near the end and let the other end be
suspended between your fingers.
Let there be a very small gap around a centimeter between
your thumb and stick/scale and the stick/scale and fore finger.
Now let your friend allow it to fall. Try to hold it.
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Could you hold it exactly at the point where it was
suspended between your fingers?
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fig-1: Holding stick
Mark the point where you caught the stick.
How far up was this point from the end suspended between your fingers?
Why did this happen?
How fast do you think the process was?
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Responses are brought about by rapid changes in some muscles and
such changes are usually related to changing stimuli. Rapidity of response
indicates an efficient communication system linking those parts that pick
up stimuli to those that trigger a response.
What makes this kind of communication possible?
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Free distribution by T.S. Government 2019-20 95
Integrating pathways - Nervous coordination
The Greeks believed that all functions of the body were controlled by
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the brain since damage to that organ produced remarkable changes in
behaviour. They had very little idea on how such control could be exercised
Though Galen, a Greek physiologist (A.D. 129-200) made one notable
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observation. One of his patients, having suffered a blow on the neck when
falling from his chariot, complained loss of feeling in the arm while still
fig-2: Galen retaining normal muscular control of its moment. Galen concluded that
nerves were of two kinds – those of sensation and those of action.
According to him the blow in the neck had damaged the nerves of sensation
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but had not affected it’s action.
Why do you think Galen draw such a conclusion?
The functioning of nerves as integrating systems was little known till
late 18th century. Then, physiologists began to study the mechanism of
nerve functioning and found how signals were transmitted by making the
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connection between recent work on electricity and the propositions on
working of the nervous system made till then.
Now we know more about how nerves from different sections of the
brain and spinal cord control responses of different areas of the body. We
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also know the probable pathways that transmit information but we still
know very little about the working mechanisms of the nerve cell.
Structure of nerve cell
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Activity-2
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