What does 'integrating peripheral responses to peripheral information' mean?

[StrongBeliever]

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So in my Human Physiology textbook it says,
interneurons are important in integrating peripheral responses to peripheral information

Could someone please explain this phrase to me?🙂

 

[StrongBeliever]

bump? Anyone?

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I mean interneuons do a lot of things, but I think what they’re referring to is spinal interneurons, and their role in reflexes.

The idea is that you can link a sensory input to a motor output via an interneuron in the spinal cord, and bypass the CNS to get a reflexive response ASAP.

You can also have inhibitory or stimulators interneurons that tamp the reflexes Up or down, IIRC.

 

[Anti-PD1]

So in my Human Physiology textbook it says,
interneurons are important in integrating peripheral responses to peripheral information

Could someone please explain this phrase to me?🙂

The gloss over word here is integrating. Interneurons are typically inhibitory but not always. Interneurons allow multiple sources of peripheral information, i.e. sensations/commands, to be interpreted. You can imagine in the diagram below, a pure stimulus would initiate the eventual response. Stimuli are not always pure, i.e. there can be conflicting stimuli, i.e. if you focus on your knee reflex at the doctors office and cortically inhibit this reflex arc. Imagine multiple such disagreeing stimuli synapsing on multiple interneurons. Through network dynamics outside the scope of practical knowledge, the interneurons collectively deliver a go/no go response to the motor neuron.

Thank your interneurons.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Interneuron - Wikipedia