What do we mean by reflexive?

Pattern Generation and Meaning Making

If you have even a few neurons in a petri dish they will start to form circuits and and generate waves and patterns of activation. But then these patterns have no relevant meaning in the outside world until an appropriate receiver turns it into movement and gets sensory feedback. When we decide to stand up we must select and sequence the movement units needed - ie: shift center of weight over feet, press feet into earth, shift the pelvis forward, extend the hips, align head over base of support... We can be(come) aware of the little pieces (consciously) or simply act and somehow the selection and sequencing happens 'automatically' (unconsciously). A complex chain neural centers from the motor cortex, to the cerebellum, through the pons and brainstem, down the spine, and finally to those parts of the spine where the central pattern generators (CPG) distribute impulses to muscle fibers. CPGs act rhythmically and are either suppressed or amplified by both higher centers and their own golgi tendon and muscle spindle reflex arcs. At each level there are complex feedback and feed forward loops that monitor incoming information and adjust the output based upon mental images and goals. Any given neuron is binary in that either it fires or is doesn't, what is not binary is what decides whether it fires - how much and how fast it receives what ratio of inhibitory and excitatory stimuli. "Proprioceptive reflexes are not hard-wired but rather are context- and phase-dependent, with the central nervous system selecting input-output pathways appropriate for the task at hand." (quote) How neurons behave and organize is 'hardwired' into the physiological nature of the 'wires' themselves but what a signal 'means' in the outside world is programed upon action-based body maps in the spinal cord which emerge during development. These body maps are only 'good enough' and the best we have worked out so far in our efforts to cope with the environment.

An impulse leads to movement, resulting in sensory feedback, allowing the impulse to 'know itself'. The current calibration of this system is a record of our entire developmental process from the embryonic to the present moment. How we have come to experience self, agency, and options at the intersection of an inner and outer environment. The health and diversity of this system will determine the state of the physical structure as it ages and its ability to function. By exploring different facets of movement, we can provide our nervous system with data by which to optimize and open to new possibility.