It's called the stretch reflex and involves muscle spindles which are sensorimotor organs located in skeletal muscle.
The reflex of the Golgi tendon.
The inverse myotatic reflex, also known as the Golgi tendon reflex, is a protective mechanism that helps prevent muscle damage from excessive tension. When a muscle exerts too much force, the Golgi tendon organs, located at the junction of muscles and tendons, detect this increase in tension and send signals to the spinal cord. This triggers an inhibitory response, causing the muscle to relax and preventing potential injury. This reflex is crucial for maintaining muscle and tendon integrity during vigorous activities.
The Hering-Breuer reflex
The knee-jerk reflex is a type of stretch reflex, which is a type of spinal reflex. It involves the stimulation of sensory neurons in the muscle spindles of the quadriceps muscle, leading to a quick contraction of the muscle in response to a sudden stretch.
- 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 ]
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.
The Golgi tendon reflex is a protective mechanism that inhibits muscular contraction when excessive tension is detected in the tendon. During PNF stretching, activating the Golgi tendon organs through isometric muscle contractions can help to temporarily relax the muscle, allowing for a greater stretch to be achieved. This reflex helps to prevent injury by limiting the amount of force exerted on the muscle during stretching.
The effector muscle for the calcaneal reflex (also known as the Achilles reflex) is the gastrocnemius muscle in the calf. When the Achilles tendon is tapped, it causes a contraction of the gastrocnemius muscle, resulting in plantar flexion of the foot.
Clenching an unrelated muscle group whilst inducing a refllex causes activation of gamma motneurones which inervate intrafusal muscle fibers causing them to be more sensitive to strech. A hightened sensitivity this causes and increased reflex response.
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.