1. A young man has suffered a spinal injury from beingtackled while playing football. The doctor suspects he has adislocated lumbar vertebra (just below the waist) that iscompressing his spinal cord and that he will probably need surgeryto restore normal function. To assess the extent of his problem, anumber of tests are conducted:
   1. Knee jerk reflex – normal for both legs
   2. A prick to the bottom of the patient’s right foot produces awithdrawal of the right leg and an extension of the opposite legand the patient says that he felt a sharp prick.
   3. A prick to the bottom of the patient’s left foot produces awithdrawal of the left leg and an extension the opposite leg butthe patient does not feel the prick.
   4. The doctor tells the patient to lift his right leg and then hisleft leg – the patient does both tasks without difficulty.
   5. The doctor tells the patient to wiggle the toes on his rightfoot and his left foot – the patient cannot wiggle the toes of hisright foot, but has no trouble wiggling the toes of his leftfoot.
   6. The doctor rubs an ice cube on the bottom of the patient’s feetand asks him to describe what he feels. The patient reports asmooth cold object when the ice cube is rubbed along the bottom ofhis right foot, but he only reports feeling a smooth object movingalong the bottom of his left foot.

1. What is each test trying to assess - a spinal cord reflex, asensory pathway, a motor pathway?   Provide specificnames of pathways where appropriate.
2. What pathways were affected by his injury? Describe the basicfeatures of these pathways including: the kind of informationcarried, where the information is coming from, where it is goingto, the fiber type(s) involved, and where the majorsynapses/crossovers occur.