What makes reflexes “fast”? What is the science behind training reflex speed?
In: Biology
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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