Anatomy & Physiology › Section M · Somatic and autonomic nervous systems › Topic M.5
Autonomic reflexes and homeostasis
Stand up quickly and your blood pressure should dip, yet you rarely feel it, because a reflex has already sped your heart and tightened your vessels. Autonomic reflexes like this one keep the internal environment steady, and their wiring also explains oddities such as heart pain felt in the arm.
In this topic
- Visceral reflex arcs
- Sensing the viscera
- Referred pain
- Worked example: pain in the shoulder
- Long and short reflexes
- Competing inputs at the target
- Autonomic tone in blood vessels
- The pupillary reflexes
- Worked example: standing up
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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