[Non-reflex activity of the CNS]

Recent studies of biological rhythms have modified Sherrington's concept of nervous system as exclusively reflexive to include the fact that some neural activity is also endogenously rhythmic. Reflexes are undoubtedly the most important components of animal's and human behavior. But are reflexes the basic units of all complex movements and acts? Rhythmical movements such as respiration, walking and running and other forms of locomotion, as well as rhythmical alimentary processes such as respiration, walking and running and other forms of locomotion, as well as rhythmical alimentary processes such as licking, mastication, and the peristaltic propulsion of nutrients and waste are examples of acts controlled by intrinsic oscillators, so called central pattern generators. Information from the periphery is, however, essential for controlling the extent and rate of movements. Between reflex and non-reflex activity it is possible to place complex species-specific responses called by ethologists fixed-action patterns. Recent investigators have shown that many complex sequences of behavior like speech or piano playing are determined by an internal plan, rather than being generated by a "chain" of reflexes. Non-reflexive activity appears earlier in ontogeny, and is probably phylogenetically older than reflexes.