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The cat righting reflex is a cat's innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet. The righting reflex begins to appear at 3–4 weeks of age, and is perfected at 6–9 weeks. [1] Cats are able to do this because they have an unusually flexible backbone and no functional clavicle (collarbone). The tail seems to help ...
The righting reflex can be described as a three-neuron arc system composed of primary vestibular neurons, vestibular nuclei neurons, and target motorneurons. [6] Input from the vestibular system is received by sensory receptors in the hair cells of the semicircular canals and the otoliths , which are processed in the vestibular nuclei.
The falling cat problem has elicited interest from scientists including George Gabriel Stokes, James Clerk Maxwell, and Étienne-Jules Marey.In a letter to his wife, Katherine Mary Clerk Maxwell, Maxwell wrote, "There is a tradition in Trinity that when I was here I discovered a method of throwing a cat so as not to light on its feet, and that I used to throw cats out of windows.
This reflex is known as the cat righting reflex. [63] A cat always rights itself in the same way during a fall, if it has enough time to do so, which is the case in falls of 90 cm (3.0 ft) or more. [64] How cats are able to right themselves when falling has been investigated as the "falling cat problem". [65]
A nonconscious reaction is seen in the human proprioceptive reflex, or righting reflex—in the event that the body tilts in any direction, the person will cock their head back to level the eyes against the horizon. [15] This is seen even in infants as soon as they gain control of their neck muscles.
[8] [9] This is known as the cat's "righting reflex". The minimum height required for this to occur in most cats (safely) would be around 90 cm (3.0 ft). However, it has been argued that, after having reached terminal velocity, cats would orient their limbs horizontally such that their body hits the ground first. [5]
To a cat, a show literally just looks like never-ending, mind numbing flickers of light. Some pets do like to watch these weird, garbled images, though. If you've got a couch potato pooch, check ...
A common example of this reflex is the cat righting reflex, which allows them to orient themselves in order to land on their feet. This reflex is initiated by sensory information from the vestibular, visual, and the somatosensory systems and is therefore not only a vestibulospinal reflex. [8]