In: Biology
what is the difference between long and short reflexes in the neural control of digestion? Put in more about enteric nervous system.
A long reflex is a reflex in which a sensory neuron sends signal to the brain.This signal gets integrated and then the information or response is sent to the digestive system. Sometimes, these stimuli can be received from sources other than the gastrointestinal tract, then the reflex is known as feed forward reflex While short reflexes are nothing else but the fast internal responses made by the enteric nervous system in response to a digestive stimuli. The long and the short reflexes differ to each other only in the involvement of CNS.
The enteric nervous system is a part of ANS(autonomic nervous system), and is directly involved (without the help of CNS) in the control of the gastrointestinal system.Since it has the efferent, afferent and inter- neurons it can function independently of the CNS. It has 2 plexuses,the submucosal( maintains the velocity and intesity of contractions) and the myentric(controls the local secretion, absorption, growth and motility of muscles).