What makes reflexes “fast”? What is the science behind training reflex speed?
In: Biology
Reflexes are fast because they are an involuntary response that bypasses the conscious part of the brain. It’s governed by the motor cortex, the part of the brain that handles motor functions. Making a conscious decision to duck away to dodge an incoming ball for instance takes time. You have to see the ball, understand what’s happening, estimate the trajectory, decide whether to put your arms up or dodge it or do nothing and then actually do it. This takes way too long. Reflexes don’t bother, your motor cortex just acts before you can even think about what’s happening. This makes it way faster but can cause an involuntary reflex that isn’t appropriate, like getting scared by someone just coming in for a hug and accidentally punching them in the face.
The central nervous system is more than just the brain, and that’s a good thing, because the brain is slow at making decisions, for two reasons: it’s big/crowded, and it’s far.
Some reflex, like walking, or grabbing things, don’t require much visual/auditory cue, they mostly work with touch, proprioception and other local sensors. Those have the advantage of being close to the spine that contain the spinal cord, it is much less crowded, which allows for really long and fast connections, and therefore react really quickly. Unfortunately, it is also much less complex, so it can’t make really smart decisions.
Your brain can override the decisions of the spine, a little too late (after the reflex response), but still, it’s able to override. In the mean time, the spine continuously try to correctly make the right reflex decision so as to rarely be overridden by the brain. That’s how it learn.
That’s why at the beginning you have to consciously ride your bicycle, but after a while you ride it as if it was just walking around.
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