Sometimes, when it is difficult to initiate a knee-jerk reflex by tapping the patellar tendon, a patient will be asked to voluntarily make a fist. Then the reflex will be easily evoked. What does this illustrate about the relation between voluntary and involuntary reflex movement?


Descending motor tracts that excite the motor neurons that activate forearm and hand muscles also send excitatory impulses to motor neurons lower down the spinal cord. These EPSPs spatially summate with the excitatory inputs from the muscle spindles to quadriceps motor neurons, bringing the quadriceps neurons to threshold, and thus generate a brisk "knee-jerk" response.

Anatomy & Physiology

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Anatomy & Physiology

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Anatomy & Physiology