How are reflexes useful to animals?

Answer 1

The term 'reflexes' is given to a range of involuntary reactions to stimulus seen in animals. These include such examples as blinking when startled, rapidly withdrawing your hand from a hot surface, or kicking out when your knee is tapped.

Reflexes result from an autonomic response rather than a conscious signal from the brain, which gives reflexes a faster response time than deliberate actions.

A healthy reflex response to certain stimuli can save an animal (such as a human) from serious injury; by the time you are consciously aware, for instance, that you have put your hand on a hot surface, your reflex response has already caused you to lift your hand. If your hand were to remain in contact with the surface for the duration of the nervous round-trip required for a voluntary response, the chance of injury would be far greater.

Other types of reflex exist that you may not even notice, such as the fact that your eyes automatically close for protection when you sneeze (in fact, even sneezing is a form of reflex), or when something is brought rapidly and perilously close to the face. The way your pupils dilate (to allow you to see in the dark) or contract (to protect the eye from bright light sources) is a form of reflex.

Coughing or gagging when something obstructs the throat or lungs is also reflexive- automatically attempting to clear the airway before an object becomes wedged, for instance.

Even an adrenaline rush is a form of reflex despite being an unconscious reaction to a conscious state; if someone jumps out at you unexpectedly (something you consciously or sub-consciously perceive as an immediate threat), your body may react by initiating a fight-or-flight response, releasing adrenaline which re-routes oxygenated blood to the muscles and heart in preparation for physical action, and greatly increasing your capacity to escape and survive.

Reflexes can save an animal's life.