It's called the stretch reflex and involves muscle spindles which are sensorimotor organs located in skeletal muscle.
The Golgi tendon reflex.
tendon reflex
The reflex of the Golgi tendon.
The Hering-Breuer reflex
- Golgi tendon reflex - When there is too much tension on a muscle, the afferent sensory nerves send the information to the spinal cord which sends its information to the cerebellum where the information is used to adjust muscle tension. Simultaneously, the motor neurons of the spinal cord that innervates the contracting muscle are inhibited and the antagonistic muscles are activated. I believe (but am not certain sure) the term you're looking for is "deep tendon reflex" (aka "monosynaptic reflex"). When a muscle's tendon is suddenly stretched, receptors within the tendon send signals to cause the muscle contract, so it opposes the stretch. This is the reflex that's tested when you tap just below your knee and your foot swings out (a knee-jerk reaction :-) See Glossary of Terms in Spinal Cord Injury Research [sci.rutgers.edu/dynarticles/CareCureGlossary_20Jun02.doc ]
This particular reflex is autonomic as the affected muscle, constrictor pupillae muscle, is a smooth muscle and not under conscious control. Typically if you can consciously contract the muscle, any reflex associated with that muscle is somatic in nature.
The spindle reflex in your legs prevents your legs from buckling when you are standing up.
autonomic reflex
No, a somatic reflex are the reflexes of the skeletal muscle movements. The gag reflex is considered to be an autonomic reflex.
An effector is at the end of a reflex arc as it is the muscle or gland that 'does' the reflex. What the effector does is the outcome of the reflex arc.
knee jerk reflex
Somatic Reflex
The difference between a reflex and a voluntary muscle is simply that a reflex is autonomic response to a stimulus thus making it involuntary. This in direct contradiction to a voluntary muscle movement with is done by making the conscious decision to do so.
The Golgi tendon organ is located where muscle fibers of skeletal muscle meet tendons. Made up of strands of collagen, the organ also contains nerve tissue. The major function of this organ is to sense muscle tension when a muscle is contracted, sending signals to the brain about how much force is being exerted and where. This important sensory organ was discovered by and named after Camillo Golgi, an Italian physician who made numerous discoveries about the function of the human nervous system in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Classified as a proprioceptive sensory receptor, the Golgi tendon organ belongs to a family of structures that send information to the brain about how joints are functioning, including the angles at which they are held, the length of the muscle at any given time and how much tension is placed on the joint or the muscle. At one time, it was believed that the Golgi tendon organ responded only to high levels of muscle tension in order to protect muscles from overexertion. The theory that they respond only to high tension is incorrect, though. Studies done in 1967 proved that the Golgi organ responds to all levels of muscle tension, from slight to extreme. When a reflex hammer is tapped below the knee, the Golgi reflex at that joint is being tested.