Teaching Experiment

Reflexes and reaction times

A basic experiment on reflexes and reaction times to various stimuli. This is the Chart 5 for Windows version of the experiment.

Introduction
The aim of this experiment is to explore reflexes and reaction times, in response to a variety of stimuli and under a variety of conditions. In this laboratory class you will examine some simple and complex reflexes from a volunteer, and look at reaction times from a volunteer given harmless visual and sound cues. You will also study the time required for a planned voluntary response to a cue. This session is suitable for beginning undergraduates with some knowledge of the PowerLab system.

Background
In our day-to-day lives, we detect changes in the environment and react appropriately. An external stimulus is detected by sensory neurons, which send the information to the central nervous system, where it is processed. If a motor response is initiated, it usually involves a series of action potentials that produce a muscle contraction and a movement of one or more parts of the body. Reflexes are examples of this type of stimulusresponse reaction. A loud sound or something flying at your eye makes you blink, while a tap on the tendon under the knee cap produces the knee-jerk (or myotatic) reflex.
Cell body of sensory neuron

To cerebellum

Dorsal

Gray matter

White matter

Cell body of motor neuron

Ventral From stretch receptors in muscle

To muscle fibers

Figure 1. A cross-section of the spinal cord, showing the neuronal circuitry of the stretch (myotatic) reflex).

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A simple reflex like the stretch (myotatic) reflex is produced via single synapses between sensory axons and motor neurons. The circuitry for this reflex is confined to the spinal cord, as shown in Figure 1. Sensory information also ascends to higher centers, but the brain is not necessary or required to perform the reflex. More complex reflexes usually involve additional (inter-) neurons and more than one population of motor neurons. This results in a longer delay between stimulus and response, and often a more complex response. An example is the withdrawal reflex, where a noxious stimulus to an arm or leg causes withdrawal of the stimulated limb, by flexion of several joints. Voluntary reactions to a cue are considerably more complicated than reflexes: they require higher brain functions, rather than relying on low-level neuronal circuitry.

Setting up the experiment

The experiment has been designed for and tested on a PowerLab 4/20T system, although it can easily be adapted for other PowerLab systems. This general setup is used for Exercise 4 onwards in this experiment. The PowerLab 4/20T should already be connected up to your computer and turned on. The equipment required for the exercises is: the PowerLab 4/20T [ML860] the push-button switch [MLA92] the finger pulse transducer [MLT1010] a torch (battery-powered), or other light source.

Finger pulse transducer

Push-button switch

Figure 2. The e uipment setup! apparatus for measuring reaction time.

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1. Connect the push-button switch to the BNC socket for Channel 1 (Figure 2). 2. Connect the finger pulse transducer to the BNC socket for Channel 2 (Figure 2). You are now ready to begin the exercises.

Exercise 4: Reaction time

Objectives
To measure a volunteers reaction time to a visual cue.

Starting the soft are

To set up recording for the remaining exercises of this experiment, you load a settings file from the Experiments Gallery. If your tutor has made other arrangements, for instance, the Experiments Gallery does not contain the required settings files, or you have to set up the files manually, then follow his or her instructions. Otherwise continue. 1. Locate Chart on your computer and start the software in the usual way. If the Experiments Gallery dialog box does not appear in front of the Chart View, choose the Experiments Gallery command from the File menu. 2. In the Experiments Gallery dialog box, select this experiment (Reflexes and Reaction Times) in the left-hand list. Select the settings file in the right-hand list, then click the Open button to apply those settings. 3. After a short time, the Chart View on the computer screen should be set up for the next exercises. One channel should be visible: Channel 1 should be named Response. Channel 2 (Transducer) is hidden at the bottom of the data display area. The settings file for this experiment sets Chart up so that after the Start button is clicked, recording does not start immediately. Instead, the system waits for a trigger event in the form of a sufficiently large signal from the finger pulse transducer, such as that produced by lightly tapping the transducer. (Chart records this on Channel 2. You should not need to view the triggering signals in this experiment, though.) If tapping the transducer does not start Chart recording, check your connections, then ask your tutor for help. After triggering, recording continues for 0.5 s, which is long enough for a press of the pushbutton switch (shown on the Response channel) to be captured. The reaction times are then measured as the times from the start of each data block to the recorded press of the push-button switch.

!rocedure
1. Wrap the Velcro strap around the finger pulse transducer so as to cover its thin diaphragm. This protects the transducer against over-strong tapping. Place the transducer on a bench with the diaphragm facing up, in a place where it will not be bumped accidentally. Keep the transducer in place with a piece of adhesive tape across the cable.

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2. Instruct the volunteer to click the push-button switch as soon as he or she sees you tap the transducer. 3. Hold one hand just over the transducer, but not touching it. Click the Start button. The system will begin recording when it receives a signal from the transducer. 4. After a delay of 1 to 4 seconds, tap the transducer without warning. 5. Make a total of ten taps, ensuring that the taps are given without warning, at unpredictable intervals in the range of 1 to 4 seconds. 6. Click the Stop button to stop recording after ten data blocks have been recorded.

"nal#sis
1. Drag across the first event and choose Zoom View from the Window menu. 2. Move the Waveform Cursor until it is over the start of the response in the Zoom View, and read the time value from the region of the window just below the title bar. This reaction time is the time from the stimulus (at time zero) to the response signal (the time value t = 0.147 s in Figure 3). 3. Repeat the measurement for all ten trials. 4. Omit the longest and shortest values and average the remaining eight values to give the mean reaction time.

Figure ". #easurement of reaction time. The $hart %iew shows a series of responses, one of which is selected and enlarged in the &oom %iew. 'lace the (a)eform $ursor at the start of the response pulse to get the reaction time.

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"utomated anal#sis
1. From the Macro menu, choose Reaction Times. This command in effect automates steps 1 to 3 above, and presents the ten results in a column of the Data Pad window. 2. Check that there are exactly ten results. If there are more than ten, it means that you forgot to discard some previous data. Discard it now (close the file and dont save) and repeat the exercise. 3. Omit the longest and shortest values shown in the Data Pad, and using a calculator, average the remaining eight values to give the mean reaction time. 4. You should get an almost identical result from the two methods of data analysis, except for the units of time one may be expressed in seconds (for example 0.147 s) and the other in milliseconds (147 ms). The results may differ slightly in the third digit.

Exercise $: Reaction time

Objectives

ith a

arning

To measure the reaction time to a visual cue given immediately after a verbal prompt.

!rocedure
1. Choose New from Charts File menu. In the New Document alert box, ensure the lower radio button (Settings from) and checkbox (Close) are on, and click OK. This closes the open file and gives you a file with no data, but the same settings. Another alert box will appear: click No to discard the previous file. A new file should appear with one channel visible (Response), just as in the previous exercise. 2. Repeat Exercise 4, but warn the volunteer verbally of each cue by saying ready, immediately before tapping the transducer.

"nal#sis
Determine the mean reaction time using automated analysis (as described earlier), and compare the result with that of Exercise 4.

Exercise %: Reaction time to predictable cues

Objectives
To measure the reaction time to a visual cue given at regular intervals.

!rocedure
1. Choose New from Charts File menu. In the New Document alert box, ensure the lower
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radio button (Settings from) and checkbox (Close) are on, and click OK. This closes the open file and gives you a file with no data, but the same settings. Another alert box will appear: click No to discard the previous file. 2. Repeat Exercise 4, with no verbal warning, but tapping the transducer in a regular rhythm, such as every 2 seconds.

"nal#sis
Determine the mean reaction time using automated analysis (as described earlier), and compare the result with that of Exercise 4.

Exercise &: Reaction time

Objectives

ith a distracting task

To measure the reaction time to a visual cue while doing mental arithmetic.

!rocedure
1. Choose New from Charts File menu. In the New Document alert box, ensure the lower radio button (Settings from) and checkbox (Close) are on, and click OK. This closes the open file and gives you a file with no data, but the same settings. Another alert box will appear: click No to discard the previous file. 2. Ask the volunteer to count down from 100 by 7, i.e. starting from 100 to subtract 7 repeatedly, and as fast as possible. The volunteer should say each number aloud (100, 93, 86). 3. While the volunteer is doing mental arithmetic, repeat Exercise 4.

"nal#sis
Determine the mean reaction time using automated analysis (as described earlier), and compare the result with that of Exercise 4.

'uestions
1. Is the mean reaction time the same under all conditions? 2. Which conditions increase the reaction time and which decrease it?

Exercise (: Reaction time to auditor# cues

Objectives
To measure reaction time to a sound.
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!rocedure
1. The volunteer should sit facing away from both the finger pulse transducer and the computer screen, to avoid visual cues. He or she should be close enough to hear a vigorous tap on the transducer. 2. Experiment with different ways of tapping, to find one which gives a sound that can be clearly heard by the volunteer, but without risk of damaging the transducer. Try tapping the bench and the transducer simultaneously. Alternatively, cover the transducer with a piece of folded paper, and flick it sharply. 3. Choose New from Charts File menu. In the New Document alert box, ensure the lower radio button (Settings from) and checkbox (Close) are on, and click OK. This closes the open file and gives you a file with no data, but the same settings. Another alert box will appear: click No to discard the previous file. 4. Repeat Exercise 4, with the volunteer reacting to sound.

"nal#sis
Determine the mean reaction time using automated analysis (as described earlier), and compare the result with that of Exercise 4.

'uestions
1. Do you think that the difference is really due to different processing times in the brain for visual and auditory cues? 2. Could the difference just be due to inherent variability in the experimental method?

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