Text b. Conditioned reflexes

Reflexes make us react in a certain way. All the somatic and visceral reflexes including the protective , feeding and others are formed by various internal and external stimuli. These stimuli produce reactions not depending on surrounding conditions. For example, when the doctor taps you below the knee cap, your leg swings out, or when a light beam hits our eyes, our pupils shrink in response to the light stimulus. The great Russian physiologist Pavlov called them unconditioned reflexes. The body responds in the same way every time the stimulus is applied.

In human beings the nervous system has the additional ability to form cortical associations which increase the range of reactions. This function is obtained by all the human beings and formed upon signalization, i.e. the process in which an ineffective reflex stimulus forms the same reactions as the stimulus with which it has become associated. Pavlov called these individually obtained reflexes conditioned because they are developed only in connection with some other reflexes.

It is through constant contacts of life that men develop many conditioned reflexes. They begin to develop already in infancy. During human development their number is much increased through training and education. Pavlov determined that in higher animals it was in the cortex that conditioned reflexes were formed.

So-called “Pavlovian” training is used in many fields with anti-phobia treatment as an example. This phenomenon can be used to treat such phobias as heights or crowds. The patient is first taught a muscle relaxation technique. Then he is told , over a period of days, to imagine the fear-producing situation while trying to inhibit the anxiety by relaxation. At the end of the series the strongest anxiety-provoking situation may be brought to mind without anxiety.

TASKS

I. Find the explanation from B to each word in A:

A 1. defect 2. enthusiasm 3. fear 4. death 5. anxiety 6. image 7. phobia

B a picture that you have in your mind an unpleasant feeling of being worried that something bad is going to happen a lack of something that means that something is not perfect a strong feeling of interest or enjoyment of something and readiness to take part in it a strong dislike or fear of something the end of the life of a person or an animal the feeling of being very worried about something that may happen

II. Translate the following word combinations:

условные и безусловные рефлексы, реагировать на внутренние и внешние стимулы, зависеть от окружающей среды, страх и тревога, дополнительная способность, круг (количество) реакций, приобретенные рефлексы, во младенчестве, окружающие условия, постоянные контакты, обучение и образование, защищать людей, определенным образом