We're coming into the fifth week of the summer Anatomy and Physiology class, and the subject is the integration of somatic and autonomous neural activity in the nervous system.
I know.
In simple terms, what you want to do (or don't consciously know that your body wants to do) travels down the spinal cord from the brain or associated structure (descending neural fibers), and information from receptors travel up the spinal column, to the brain stem or your consciousness (ascending neural fibers). Sometimes, in the case of a stimulus interpreted as threatening to life or limb (such as grabbing the hot handle of a pot of bubbling spaghetti sauce), before you are even aware that you did something superlatively silly, an interneuron in your spinal cord fires a quick signal to a muscle to contract and, hopefully, pulls your hand to safety. Then your conscious awareness gets the signal, and you spout some profanity and/or obscenity, while you run your arm under cold water.
It's truly amazing, but if you've ever done it, odds are split that you might inadvertently slop some boiling tomato concoction on your tender forearm. Which isn't all bad, in that other mechanisms in your central nervous system etch that experience in the neurochemistry of your brain, and maybe next time you'll use a hotpad.
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