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Reflexes don't go up the spinal cord to the brain, as the body wants to remove itself from the stimulus as quickly as possible. So, it goes in a loop, called a reflex arc, where the sensory neurons detect the tap and the stimulus is so strong it immediately jumps to the motor neurons to make the leg jerk. It all happens in the spinal cord.

However, you don't feel it because the nerves going up (afferent) and down (efferent) the spinal cord to the brain have been severed and so the brain doesn't detect it.

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14y ago

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