Conditioned Reflex

Conditioned Reflex is one of the most well-known types of acquired reflexes that arises as a result of learning. It was researched by Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, who conducted a series of experiments on dogs in the early 20th century.

In Pavlov's classic experiments, dogs were given food at specific times while the sound of a bell was played. Over time, the animals began to associate the sound of the bell with food and produced saliva in response to the ringing of the bell, even if they were not given food. Thus, stimulation of the bell sound receptors began to cause a conditioned reflex of salivation.

There are many other examples of conditioned reflexes. For example, a person may associate the sound of a doorbell with visitors or the sound of a car engine with an approaching car. In this case, the corresponding reactions (experiences, emotions, actions) are evoked without external influence, only by an audio signal.

The mechanism of formation of conditioned reflexes is to establish a connection between various stimuli that had no connection before training. As a result of repeated repetition of the connection between stimuli, the excitation produced by one stimulus (conditioned) begins to cause a reaction that was previously produced only in response to another stimulus (unconditioned).

The conditioned reflex is widely used in psychology and psychotherapy to study human behavior and treat various psychological disorders. For example, in the treatment of phobias and fears, the exposure method is used, in which a person gradually gets used to the stimulus that causes fear by repeating it in small doses, which allows the reflex to be retrained and get rid of fear.

Thus, the conditioned reflex is an important learning mechanism that allows animals and people to adapt to their environment and change their behavior depending on experience.

A conditioned reflex is an acquired reflex in which functional connections between the excitation of receptors and the characteristic response of effector organs are established during the learning process. In Pavlov's classic experiments, dogs were trained to associate the sound of a bell with feeding time, so that they would produce saliva in response to the ringing of the bell, regardless of whether food was given to them or not.

Reflexes conditioned and unconditioned

Of the many different forms of reactions that the body performs in response to various stimuli, some can occur immediately, without prior preparation. Such reflexes are called unconditioned (from the Latin “indifferent”). These include, for example, coughing, blinking, sneezing, changes in the functioning of the sweat glands at high ambient temperatures, etc. Unconditioned reflexes are those that are present in organisms from birth to death. For example, a woman can support her body only under the influence of impulses unconscious to the brain. The same applies to newborn babies - the skin of these babies controls such unconditioned reflexes as innate facial expressions, swallowing, sucking, urine and feces, crying, stretching the arms, contracting individual muscles and muscle groups, etc.

Such reactions were probably formed by several generations of “ancestors” and do not depend on the work of higher nerve centers. Unlike unconditioned ones, these reflexes are acquired. They appear after the animal has been taught a certain action, while similar reflexes for lower organisms could be inherited from their ancestors. But they are developed in ways different from