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§1. Conditioned and unconditioned reflexes

§1. Conditioned and unconditioned reflexes

13.10.2019

Conditioned reflexes differ from unconditioned reflexes in diversity and inconstancy. Therefore, there is no clear division of conditioned reflexes and their definite classification.

19. Features of unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. Classification of reflexes according to biological significance.

General characteristics of UNCONDITIONAL REFLEXES, their classification.

Unconditioned reflex (BR) is the body's response to irritation of sensory receptors, carried out with the help of NS.

BR is an innate species-specific reaction of the body, reflexively arising in response to a specific effect of a stimulus, to the effect of a biologically significant (pain, food) stimulus adequate for this type of activity.

Unconditioned reflexes are associated with vital biological needs and are carried out within a stable reflex pathway.

Unconditioned reflex - This:

– congenital reactions;

– are specific And formed in the course of evolution of this type

- occur on specific/appropriate stimulus ,

- affect specific receptor field.

Unconditioned reflexes refer to permanent And persist throughout life.

They can greatly change the behavior of the animal when the environment changes.

reflex center located at the level of the SM and the lower divisions of the GM, i.e. these are reflexes of lower nervous activity.

In the chela, representations of reflexes are formed in the cortex.

In the mechanism unconditioned reflex big role plays reverse afferentation .

BR, the formation of which is completed in postnatal ontogenesis, are genetically predetermined and rigidly adjusted to certain environmental conditions corresponding to this type.

Under the influence of early individual experience, innate reflexes undergo significant changes.

Attempts to describe and classify BR much has been done, and at the same time they used various criteria:

1) by the nature of the stimuli that cause them,

2) according to their biological role,

3) in the order in which they appear in this particular behavioral act.

Konorsky divided BR according to their biological role :

1. Conservative - reflexes that ensure the regulation of the constancy of the internal environment of the body (food, respiratory, etc.);

2. Reflexes of conservation and procreation (sexual and caring for offspring),

3. Protective reflex reactions associated with the elimination of harmful agents that have entered the surface or inside the body (scratching reflex, sneezing, etc.).

4. Reflexes of active destruction or neutralization of harmful stimuli, objects (offensive or aggressive reflexes).

5. Reactions of passive-defensive behavior .

To a special grouphighlighted:

6. Orienting reflex- for novelty.

7. Stimulus targeting response

8. exploratory behavior.

Pavlov divided unconditioned reflexes into 3 groups:

1.Simple

2.Complex

3.The hardest:

1)individual- food, active-and passive-defensive, aggressive, freedom reflex, research, game reflex;

2)specific - sexual and parental.

According to Simonova , development of each sphere of the environment correspond three different classes of reflexes:

1. vitalBR- provide individual and species preservation of the organism

– food,

-drinking,

- sleep reflexes

-defensive,

- indicative.

Criteria reflexes of the vital group are:

a) failure to satisfy the corresponding need leads to the physical death of the individual,

b) the implementation of BR without the participation of another individual of the same species. 2. Role (zoosocial) BR can be realized only with the participation of other individuals of their species (These reflexes underlie sexual, parental, care for offspring, territorial behavior). 3. BR self-development focused on the development of new spatio-temporal

2. Role (zoosocial) BR– can be implemented only with the participation of other individuals of their species.

These reflexes underlie sexual, parental, care for offspring, territorial behavior.

3. BR self-development- focused on the development of new space-time environments, turned to the future (exploratory behavior, BR of resistance (freedom), imitation (imitative), game).

A feature of this group is their independence, it is not derived from other needs of the organism and is not reduced to other motivations.

human needs divided into three main independent groups:

1-vital,

2-social

2-ideal needs of knowledge and creativity.

The most difficult BR (instincts) act as a fundamental phenomenon of GNI, as an active driving force in the behavior of humans and animals.

General concept of CONDITIONAL REFLEX, their classification.

Conditioned reflex (UR) is an individually acquired reaction of the body to a previously indifferent stimulus, reproducing an unconditioned reflex.

At the core SD - the formation of new or modification of existing neural connections, occurring under the influence of changes in the external and internal environment.

These are temporary connections that are slowed down when reinforcements are canceled, the situation changes.

SD are formed under certain conditions of the individual life of the organism and disappear in the absence of appropriate conditions, thus differing from innate forms of adaptation.

All URs are separated on classical And instrumental , or UR first And second types.

main feature SD is that the stimulus in the process of forming a temporary connection (learning) instead of its inherent unconditional reaction begins to cause another, unusual for it.

Classification of conditioned reflexes :

On the afferent link of the reflex arc, in particular, according to the receptor feature, they distinguish:

1. Exteroceptive - visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and temperature.

They can be developed for the type of objects, the relationship between them, for various smells, etc.

Ecteroceptive reflexes play a role in the relationship of the body with the environment, so they are formed quickly.

2. Interoceptive conditioned reflexes - are formed more slowly than exteroceptive ones.

Interoreceptors of all types perform 2 functions:

-they constitute the afferent link of special vegetative reflexes

-play an important role in maintaining homeostasis in the body, sending information about the state of internal organs.

By efferent link reflex arc, secrete two groups:

1-vegetative And motor- salivary UR, as well as vascular, respiratory, food, pupillary, cardiac, etc.

2-instrumental- can be formed on the basis of unconditionally reflex motor reactions.

The instrumental conditioned reflex consists in the implementation of such an action that will allow one to achieve or avoid the subsequent unconditional reinforcement.

Conditioned reflexes by timing indicator between associated stimuli divide by two groups:

1-cash- in case of coincidence in time of the conditioned signal and reinforcement.

2-trace- when reinforcement is presented only after the end of the conditioned stimulus.

Conditioned reflexes for time- a special kind of UR.

They are formed with regular repetition of the unconditioned stimulus (for example: feeding the animal every 30 minutes).

By biological significance distinguish reflexes: food, defensive, genital.

3.14.4. Inhibition of conditioned reflexes

IP Pavlov, studying conditioned reflexes and their relationships, observed the inhibition (oppression) of conditioned reflexes under the action of extraneous or strong stimuli, as well as weak ones - in a diseased state of the body. He believed that the balance between excitation and inhibition determines the external manifestation of the behavior of animals and humans, and put forward his own scheme classification of types of braking with conditioned reflex activity.

External (unconditional) inhibition. Under external braking understand the urgent suppression of the current conditioned reflex activity under the action of stimuli extraneous to it, causing an indicative or some other unconditioned reflex. According to the mechanism of its occurrence, this type of inhibition is referred to as congenital, which are carried out due to the phenomena of negative induction ( induction braking, according to Pavlov). A. A. Ukhtomsky called him coupled braking and saw in it the physiological basis for the fulfillment of the dominant form of the organism's activity. Unconditional inhibition is called external because the reason for its occurrence lies outside the structure of the inhibitory reflex itself.

Orienting reflex- the most common factor of unconditional inhibition. However, the inhibitory effect of the orienting reflex with the repetition of the same signal gradually weakens and may disappear completely. At the same time, the orienting reflex itself ceases to be observed. Orienting reflex ( what's happened?) arises for a more complete perception of the information contained in an unexpected and extraneous stimulus.

In everyday life, it is constantly observed how a person stops the current activity as a result of switching attention to a new stimulus that has suddenly appeared. At the moment of occurrence of this reflex, coupled inhibition of competing reflexes is manifested. It can be more or less deep, short-term or longer, depending on the physiological strength of the orienting and inhibitory reflexes. With repeated stimulation, due to habituation, the orienting reflex disappears, and the effect of external inhibition simultaneously decreases. This type of inhibition was called extinguishing brake.

Another type of unconditioned inhibition is distinguished by the constancy of its effect on one or another inhibitory reflex and is therefore called permanent brake. The stability of external inhibition is determined, in particular, by the physiological strength of the inhibitory reflex act. Reflexes vital for the body include defensive unconditioned reflexes to various harmful stimuli, including pain. As in the case of an extinguished brake, the duration of the permanent brake of the defensive reflex is determined by its strength and the nature of the inhibited reflex and, in particular, by the degree of its hardening.

"Young" conditioned reflexes are inhibited more easily and for a longer period than "older" ones under the same conditions. Not firmly learned behavioral skills or knowledge disappear more easily with a strong unpleasant extraneous influence than more firmly learned life stereotypes. Pain effects from the internal organs have a longer inhibitory effect on conditioned reflex activity. And sometimes their power is so great that it distorts the normal course of even unconditioned reflexes.

Consequently, two antagonistic reflexes - food and defensive - cannot coexist, the weaker one is inhibited under the influence of the stronger one.

In this regard, Pavlovian external inhibition acts as the finest tool capable of isolating the most biologically significant form of behavior, subordinating all other types of activity to it. From the point of view of the doctrine of the dominant, this can be considered as conjugated inhibition with the dominant, which plays a decisive role in its formation. And this inhibition must be timely, that is, it must be of coordinating importance for the work of other organs and the organism as a whole.

It is well known that if you increase the intensity of any irritation, then the effect caused by it increases ( law of force). However, further intensification of irritation will lead to a drop or complete disappearance of the effect. The basis of this result is not fatigue, but extreme braking, which I.P. Pavlov called protective, as it protects brain cells from excessive expenditure of energy resources. This type of inhibition depends on the functional state of the nervous system, age, typological features, the state of the hormonal sphere, etc.

The endurance limit of a cell in relation to stimuli of different intensity is called its performance limit, and the higher this limit, the easier the cell tolerates the action of superstrong stimuli. Moreover, we are talking not only about physical, but also about the informational strength (significance) of conditional signals.

An extreme case of transcendental inhibition is stupor, which occurs in animals and humans under the influence of superstrong stimulation. A person can fall into a state stupor- complete immobility. Such states arise not only as a result of the action of a physically strong irritant (a bomb explosion, for example), but also as a result of severe moral shocks (for example, with an unexpected report of a serious illness or death of a loved one).

Internal (conditional) inhibition. To form internal inhibition Conditioned reflex activity includes those cases when the conditioned stimulus ceases to be reinforced by the unconditioned, i.e., gradually loses its starting signal value. Such inhibition does not appear urgently, not immediately, but develops slowly according to the general laws of the conditioned reflex and is just as changeable and dynamic. I. P. Pavlov called him therefore conditional inhibition. He believed that such developed inhibition occurs within the central nervous structures of the conditioned reflexes themselves, and hence its name - internal(i.e. not induced from the outside, not induction).

Let's single out main features conditional inhibition. 1. It develops when stimuli are not reinforced, which gradually acquire the properties of a conditioned inhibitory or negative signal. 2. Conditional inhibition is trainable. An inhibited conditioned reflex can spontaneously recover, and this property is extremely important in the development of behavioral skills at an early age. 3. The capacity for various manifestations of conditioned inhibition depends on the individual properties of the nervous system: in excitable individuals it is developed more difficultly and more slowly. 4. Conditioned inhibition depends on the physiological strength of the unconditioned reflex, which reinforces the positive conditioned signal. 5. Conditioned inhibition depends on the strength of the previously developed conditioned reflex. 6. Conditional inhibition can interact with unconditional inhibition; in these cases, the phenomenon release of brakes, and sometimes as a result of the summation of conditioned and unconditional inhibitions, their overall effect may be enhanced. I. P. Pavlov subdivided conditioned inhibition into four types: extinction, differential, conditioned brake, delay inhibition.

Fading braking develops in the absence of reinforcement of the conditioned signal by the unconditioned one. Conditioned reflexes are temporary in nature precisely because when the unconditioned reinforcement is canceled, the corresponding brain connection loses its strength, is sometimes inhibited for a long time, and sometimes completely ceases to exist.

Let us imagine that the sight of a certain locality is constantly combined in an animal with the receipt of food. But if food resources have disappeared here, the animal eventually, having not found food, ceases to visit the previously familiar area due to the development of extinctive inhibition. The magnitude and speed of the development of extinctive inhibition depend on the strength of the conditioned reflex (stable reflexes are extinguished more slowly), on the physiological strength and type of the unconditioned reflex (extinction in a hungry dog is more difficult than in a full one; food conditioned reflexes are extinguished faster than defensive ones), on the frequency of non-reinforcement ( regular non-reinforcement contributes to the rapid development of inhibition). It develops in waves and depends on individual typological differences.

Differential braking develops with non-reinforcement of stimuli that are similar in properties to the reinforced signal. This type of inhibition underlies the discrimination of stimuli. With the help of differential inhibition, from the mass of similar stimuli, one is selected that will respond to one reinforced, i.e., biologically important for him, and the conditioned reaction to other similar stimuli will be less pronounced or completely absent.

Property generalization(primary generalization) conditioned reflexes - an inevitable attribute of the behavioral adaptation of animals in their natural habitat. Considering that environmental variability occurs according to a probabilistic law and it is impossible to foresee fluctuations of certain biologically significant signs with a high probability, a significant sensory generalization of conditioned reflexes as a stage of an active search for vital objects becomes biologically justified.

In the stage of generalization of conditioned reflexes, dominant mechanism, one of the characteristic features of which is the ability of the reflex system to respond diffusely to a wide repertoire of external stimuli. In the process of repeated implementation of this reflex act, diffuse responsiveness is replaced by a selective response only to those stimuli that initially created this dominant. The stage of specialization of the dominant occurs due to the mechanisms of differential inhibition.

The latter has the following basic properties: 1) the closer the differentiable stimuli are, the more difficult it is to work out differential inhibition for one of them; 2) the degree of inhibition is determined by the strength of the excitation developed by the positive conditioned reflex; 3) the development of this inhibition occurs in waves; 4) differential inhibition is trainable, which underlies the subtle recognition of sensory environmental factors.

In an independent type of conditioned inhibition, I. P. Pavlov singled out conditional brake, which is formed when the combination of a positive conditioned signal and an indifferent stimulus is not reinforced. For example, a dog has a food conditioned reflex to a sound. If the light of a bulb is attached to this signal and their joint action is not reinforced with food, then after several applications this combination will cease to cause

food reaction, although the isolated use of the bell will still cause profuse salivation. Essentially, this is a variant of differential inhibition.

At the first moment of its application, in combination with a positive signal, the additional stimulus causes an orienting reflex and inhibition of the conditioned reaction (external inhibition), then it turns into an indifferent stimulus (extinguishing brake), and, finally, a conditioned brake develops in place of unconditioned inhibition. If the additional stimulus has acquired these properties, then, being attached to any other positive signal, it will inhibit the conditioned reflex corresponding to this signal.

When developing delay braking, reinforcement by the corresponding unconditioned reflex is not canceled, as in the previous types of inhibition, but is significantly moved away from the beginning of the action of the conditioned stimulus. Only the last period of action of the conditioned signal is reinforced, and the significant period of its action preceding it is deprived of reinforcement. It is this period that is accompanied by the inhibition of the delay and is called inactive phase of a delayed conditioned reflex. After its expiration, inhibition stops and is replaced by excitation - the so-called active phase of the reflex. In this case, there are two stimuli in the complex and the second component is time.

In experiments with conditioned food reflexes, the reinforcement delay from the beginning of the conditioned signal can reach 2–3 min, and with electrical defensive reflexes, 30–60 s. The adaptive significance of delay inhibition consists in a fine analysis of the stimulus withdrawal time, the positive phase of the reflex is timed to coincide with the start of the unconditioned reflex. For example, a cat waiting near a mouse hole does not salivate until the mouse is in its mouth.

The close interaction of different types of conditioned inhibition, especially conditioned and unconditioned inhibition, as well as the possibility of developing conditioned inhibition on the basis of unconditioned inhibition, are convincing grounds for assuming their common physiological nature.

The imprint of the information acting on the organism also occurs selectively in accordance with the dominant needs of the organism. In the processes of imprinting sensory information, the interaction of sensory excitations with the mechanisms of the initial dominant motivation plays a leading role. On the brain structures involved in the dominant motivation, external influences in each case form a specific pattern - an engram that combines synaptic and glial formations of the cortex and subcortical structures.

In the systemic organization of behavioral acts, the processes of capturing the required information are mainly carried out on the architectonics of the action result acceptor formed by the dominant motivation. The process of imprinting information is most active in the early stages of ontogenetic development. These processes in newborn animals are called imprinting.Mechanisms of imprinting associated with the expression in brain neurons of specific early proto-oncogenes (T. Horn), whose function is to restructure the work of the genetic apparatus of nerve cells under the influence of imprinted exposure. According to the mechanism of imprinting, the action of vital reinforcing factors is imprinted in adult animals. As animals develop individually, the mechanism of imprinting increasingly gives way to other memory mechanisms.

Imprinting (imprinting). Among the forms of individual adaptation, a special place is occupied by the processes at the early stages of postnatal development associated with the establishment of vital contacts in the nest, in the herd or flock, in the group or family, surrounded by parents. The complex of behavioral adaptations of the newborn, which provide the primary connection between him and his parents and, as it were, close the chain of transformations of the embryonic period, allowing the newborn to realize the already formed mechanisms of perception and response, is called imprinting (imprinting). K. Lorenz (1937) put forward an original theory of imprinting. He believed that young birds recognize adult members of their species not instinctively, but through imprinting. The latter is performed on the basis of the innate ability to follow a moving object that enters their field of vision immediately after hatching. K. Lorentz believed that imprinting differs from true associative learning in the following four features: 1) it is confined to a limited period of life, called the “critical or sensitive period”; 2) imprinting is irreversible, that is, having arisen in a critical period, it is not destroyed by subsequent life experience and persists for life; 3) the uniqueness of imprinting is determined by the fact that it occurs at a time when the corresponding (for example, sexual) behavior is not yet developed. In other words, learning by imprinting does not require reinforcement; 4) Lorentz understood imprinting as a form of "super-individual conditioned reflex", in which not individual, but species-specific characteristics of a vital object are imprinted. For example, behavior as a result of imprinting will be directed not to a particular individual that the animal perceived, but to the whole class of organisms to which the imprinted individual belonged. On fig. 11 shows a setup for studying the imprinting of an artificial figure of a mother. The preservation of the acquired experience is checked by the reaction of the duckling following the model of an adult duck. Rice. 11. A device used to study imprinting (following reaction) in birds (according to A. D. Slonim, 1976). The movements of the duck model are regulated from the control panel below. The duckling follows the model. This form of learning is called "attachment imprinting." As for auditory stimuli, it is assumed that their imprinting can take place even earlier, that is, before birth or hatching (A.D. Slonim, 1976). Many animals and insects, as well as newborn children, have the property of imprinting. Moreover, for the development of preferences, the duration of the exposure of the object is not significant. This means that the connections that arise during imprinting are wider than the reaction of following, which was studied by K. Lorentz. From here, it becomes clear that animals remember the area, the position of the hole, nest and other vital landmarks. Until now, the issue of the critical period of imprinting, its duration and the factors that determine it remains controversial. The expansion of the range of stimuli affecting the body, the increase in the probabilistic nature of the occurrence of a particular life situation increases the level of anxiety of the body and encourages it to move from obligate forms of education to optional ones. The question of the possibility of a mother imprinting her cubs is completely undeveloped. For example, goats, if they are deprived of their cubs only for 15 minutes after giving birth, accept and admit them to themselves. When this time is extended to 3.5 hours, the goats reject the cubs. The same affection is noted in sheep. Undoubtedly, one of the main functions of imprinting is to establish contact between young individuals with parents and relatives, that is, the establishment of social relations between young and other members of the species. This period of primary socialization in immature-born animals leaves an imprint on all subsequent life. K. Lorenz attributed “sexual imprinting” to an independent category of imprinting phenomena. The bottom line is that a male bird, brought up among individuals of another species, becoming an adult, prefers only females of this species, but not his own, as sexual partners. Adopted males ignore a female of their own species and court a female belonging to their adoptive parents' species. The fact that imprinting occurs long before the maturation of the corresponding behavior is confirmed by the following observation. Playing a song to young birds affects the song they will sing months later when they reach puberty. This and similar observations are clear evidence that imprinting can serve as an example of long-term figurative memory (according to I. S. Beritashvili), which arose without biological reinforcement after a single exposure to a stimulus. In the manifestations of imprinting, the interaction of individual experience and the innate properties of a young organism is used to quickly fix it in the mechanisms of memory. The neurobiological mechanisms of imprinting, as one of the forms of memory, are just beginning to be explored (G. Horn, 1988).

Reflex- the response of the body is not an external or internal irritation, carried out and controlled by the central nervous system. The development of ideas about human behavior, which has always been a mystery, was achieved in the works of Russian scientists I. P. Pavlov and I. M. Sechenov.

Reflexes unconditioned and conditional.

Unconditioned reflexes- these are innate reflexes that are inherited by offspring from parents and persist throughout a person's life. Arcs of unconditioned reflexes pass through the spinal cord or brain stem. The cerebral cortex does not participate in their formation. Unconditioned reflexes ensure that the organism adapts only to those changes in the environment that many generations of a given species often encountered.

TO unconditioned reflexes relate:

Food (salivation, sucking, swallowing);
Defensive (coughing, sneezing, blinking, pulling the hand away from a hot object);
Approximate (squinting eyes, turning the head);
Sexual (reflexes associated with reproduction and care of offspring).
The significance of unconditioned reflexes lies in the fact that thanks to them the integrity of the body is preserved, the maintenance of the constancy of the internal environment and reproduction occurs. Already in a newborn child, the simplest unconditioned reflexes are observed.
The most important of these is the sucking reflex. The irritant of the sucking reflex is the touch of an object on the child's lips (mother's breasts, nipples, toys, fingers). The sucking reflex is an unconditioned food reflex. In addition, the newborn already has some protective unconditioned reflexes: blinking, which occurs if a foreign body approaches the eye or touches the cornea, constriction of the pupil when strong light is applied to the eyes.

Particularly pronounced unconditioned reflexes in various animals. Not only individual reflexes can be innate, but also more complex forms of behavior, which are called instincts.

Conditioned reflexes- these are reflexes that are easily acquired by the body during life and are formed on the basis of an unconditioned reflex under the action of a conditioned stimulus (light, knock, time, etc.). IP Pavlov studied the formation of conditioned reflexes in dogs and developed a method for obtaining them. To develop a conditioned reflex, an irritant is needed - a signal that triggers a conditioned reflex, repeated repetition of the action of the stimulus allows you to develop a conditioned reflex. During the formation of conditioned reflexes, a temporary connection arises between the centers of the analyzers and the centers of the unconditioned reflex. Now this unconditioned reflex is not carried out under the influence of completely new external signals. These irritations from the outside world, to which we were indifferent, can now become of vital importance. During life, many conditioned reflexes are developed, which form the basis of our life experience. But this life experience makes sense only for this individual and is not inherited by its descendants.

into a separate category conditioned reflexes allocate motor conditioned reflexes developed during our life, i.e. skills or automated actions. The meaning of these conditioned reflexes is the development of new motor skills, the development of new forms of movements. During his life, a person masters many special motor skills associated with his profession. Skills are the basis of our behavior. Consciousness, thinking, attention are freed from performing those operations that have become automated and become habits of everyday life. The most successful way to master skills is through systematic exercises, correcting mistakes noticed in time, knowing the ultimate goal of each exercise.

If the conditioned stimulus is not reinforced for some time by the unconditioned stimulus, then the conditioned stimulus is inhibited. But it doesn't disappear completely. When the experiment is repeated, the reflex is very quickly restored. Inhibition is also observed under the influence of another stimulus of greater force.

8. The individuality of conditioned reflexes is manifested in the fact that 1) an individual inherits only certain conditioned reflexes 2) each individual of the same species has its own life experience 3) they are formed on the basis of individual unconditioned reflexes 4) each individual has an individual mechanism for the formation of a conditioned reflex

20-09-2010 15:22
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Answers (1) Alinka Konkova +1 20-09-2010 20:02

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What is an unconditioned reflex?

I.P. Pavlov, a physiologist, devoted his life to the study of higher nervous activity. In order to understand what unconditioned human reflexes are, it is important to consider the meaning of the reflex as a whole. Any organism that has a nervous system carries out reflex activity. Reflex - a complex reaction of the body to internal and external stimuli, carried out in the form of a reflex response.

Unconditioned reflexes are innate stereotypical reactions laid down at the genetic level in response to changes in internal homeostasis or environmental conditions. For the emergence of unconditioned reflexes, special conditions are automatic reactions that can fail only in severe illnesses. Examples of unconditioned reflexes:

withdrawal of limb from contact with hot;
knee jerk;
sucking, grasping in newborns;
swallowing;
salivation;
sneezing
blinking.

What is the role of unconditioned reflexes in human life?

The evolution of man over the centuries has been accompanied by a change in the genetic apparatus, the selection of traits that are necessary for survival in the natural environment. became highly organized matter. What is the importance of unconditioned reflexes - the answers can be found in the works of physiologists Sechenov, I.P. Pavlova, P.V. Simonov. Scientists have identified several important functions:

maintaining homeostasis (self-regulation of the internal environment) in optimal balance;
adaptation and adaptation of the body (mechanisms of thermoregulation, respiration, digestion);
preservation of species characteristics;
reproduction.

Signs of unconditioned reflexes

The main feature of unconditioned reflexes is innateness. Nature has made sure that all functions important for life in this world are reliably recorded on the nucleotide chain of DNA. Other characteristic features:

prior learning and mind control are not required;
are specific;
strictly specific - occur when in contact with a specific stimulus;
permanent reflex arcs in the lower parts of the central nervous system;
most unconditioned reflexes persist throughout life;
a set of unconditioned reflexes helps the body in the early stages of development to adapt to the environment;
are the basic basis for the emergence of conditioned reflexes.

Types of unconditioned reflexes

Unconditioned reflexes have different types of classification, I.P. Pavlov first divided them into: simple, complex and complex. In the distribution of unconditioned reflexes by the factor of certain space-time regions occupied by each creature, P.V. Simonov divided the types of unconditioned reflexes into 3 classes:

Role unconditioned reflexes- appear in interaction with other intraspecific representatives. These are reflexes: sexual, territorial behavior, parental (maternal, paternal), phenomenon.
Unconditioned vital reflexes- all the basic needs of the body, the deprivation or dissatisfaction of which leads to death. Provide individual safety: drinking, food, sleep and wakefulness, indicative, defensive.
Unconditioned reflexes of self-development- are included in the development of a new, previously unfamiliar (knowledge, space):

reflex of overcoming or resistance (freedom);
game;
imitative.

Types of inhibition of unconditioned reflexes

Excitation and inhibition are important innate functions of higher nervous activity that ensure the coordinated activity of the organism and without which this activity would be chaotic. Inhibitory unconditioned reflexes in the process of evolution turned into a complex response of the nervous system - inhibition. I.P. Pavlov distinguished 3 types of inhibition:

Unconditional braking (external)- the reaction "What is it?" allows you to assess whether the situation is dangerous or not. In the future, with the frequent manifestation of an external stimulus that does not carry danger, inhibition does not occur.
Conditional (internal) braking- the functions of conditioned inhibition ensure the extinction of reflexes that have lost their value, help to distinguish signals that are useful with reinforcement from useless ones, and form a delayed reaction to a stimulus.
Outrageous (protective) braking- an unconditional safety mechanism provided for by nature, triggered by excessive fatigue, agitation, severe injuries (fainting, coma).

In the course of evolutionary and social development, a person has developed a natural system of protection from adverse environmental factors, i.e. from dangers. It is based on the nervous system. Thanks to it, the body is connected with the external environment (light, sound, smell, mechanical influences) and various information about the processes inside and outside the body. The body's response to irritation, carried out and controlled by the central nervous system, is called a reflex, and all the activity of the nervous system is called a reflex. In a variety of reflex activities, there are innate unconditioned reflexes that are inherited and persist throughout the life of the organism.

Unconditioned human reflexes are diverse. For example, pulling back the hand in response to a skin burn, closing the eyes when there is a danger of damaging them, profuse release of tears under the influence of substances that irritate the eyes, etc. These and many other reflexes are called defensive.

A special place among the unconditioned reflexes in ensuring security is occupied by the orienting reflex. It appears in response to a new stimulus: a person is alert, listens, turns his head, squints his eyes, thinks. The orienting reflex provides the perception of an unfamiliar stimulus.

Unconditioned reflexes are a hereditary "program" of behavior. They provide normal interaction only with a stable environment. However, man lives in an exceptionally changeable, mobile, diverse environment. Unconditioned reflexes as permanent connections are not enough to ensure flexible response in a changing environment. It is necessary to supplement them with temporary flexible connections. Such connections are called conditioned reflexes.

Conditioned reflexes are formed on the basis of individual experience. Since the acquisition of individual experience is learning, the formation of conditioned reflexes is one of the types of learning.

Conditioned reflexes formed in the learning process allow the body to more flexibly adapt to specific environmental conditions and underlie the development of habits in a person, the whole way of life.

The adaptive value of conditioned reflexes is enormous. Thanks to them, a person can take the necessary actions in advance to protect himself, focusing on the signs of a possible danger, without seeing the danger itself. Conditioned stimuli are signaling in nature. They warn of danger.

All direct sensations, perceptions and corresponding human reactions are carried out on the basis of unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. However, in the specific conditions of the social environment, a person is guided and reacts not only to direct stimuli. For a person, the signal of any stimulus is the word denoting it, and its semantic content. Words spoken, audible and visible are signals, symbols of specific objects and environmental phenomena. The word man denotes everything that he perceives with the help of the senses.

Words, like other environmental factors (physical, chemical and biological), in relation to human health can be indifferent, can have a beneficial effect, or can be harmful - up to and including death (suicide).

Reflexes unconditioned and conditional.

Unconditioned reflexes- these are innate reflexes that are inherited by offspring from parents and persist throughout a person's life. Arcs of unconditioned reflexes pass through the spinal cord or brain stem. The cerebral cortex does not participate in their formation. Unconditioned reflexes provide only those changes in the environment that many generations of a given species often encountered.

To include:

Food (salivation, sucking, swallowing);
Defensive (coughing, sneezing, blinking, pulling the hand away from a hot object);
Approximate ( skew eyes, turns);
Sexual (reflexes associated with reproduction and care of offspring).
The significance of unconditioned reflexes lies in the fact that thanks to them the integrity of the body is preserved, the maintenance of constancy and reproduction occurs. Already in a newborn child, the simplest unconditioned reflexes are observed.
The most important of these is the sucking reflex. The irritant of the sucking reflex is the touch of an object on the child's lips (mother's breasts, nipples, toys, fingers). The sucking reflex is an unconditioned food reflex. In addition, the newborn already has some protective unconditioned reflexes: blinking, which occurs if a foreign body approaches the eye or touches the cornea, constriction of the pupil when strong light is applied to the eyes.

Particularly pronounced unconditioned reflexes in various animals. Not only individual reflexes can be innate, but also more complex forms of behavior, which are called instincts.

Conditioned reflexes- these are reflexes that are easily acquired by the body during life and are formed on the basis of an unconditioned reflex under the action of a conditioned stimulus (light, knock, time, etc.). IP Pavlov studied the formation of conditioned reflexes in dogs and developed a method for obtaining them. To develop a conditioned reflex, an irritant is needed - a signal that triggers a conditioned reflex, repeated repetition of the action of the stimulus allows you to develop a conditioned reflex. During the formation of conditioned reflexes, a temporary connection arises between the centers and centers of the unconditioned reflex. Now this unconditioned reflex is not carried out under the influence of completely new external signals. These irritations from the outside world, to which we were indifferent, can now become of vital importance. During life, many conditioned reflexes are developed, which form the basis of our life experience. But this life experience makes sense only for this individual and is not inherited by its descendants.