Monday, June 19, 2006

Physiology Exam 1


Chapter 1
Physiology---the study of biological function--of how the body works, from cell to tissue, tissue to organ, organ to system and of how the organism as a whole accomplishes particular tasks essential for life.


  • The study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms.
  • The study of how cells, tissues, and organs function.
  • Dealing with cause-and-effect sequences.
  • Knowledge of physiological mechanisms is deduced from date obtained experimentally.

Pathophysiology-----concerned with the functions of diseased or injured body systems and is based on knowledge of how normal systems function, which is the focus of the physiology.

Comparative physiology----the physiology of invertebrates and of different vertebrate groups. Animals including humans are more alike than they are different. It is concerned with the physiology of animals other than humans and shares much information with human physiology.

Three essential characteristics of scientific method


  1. It is assumed that the subject under study can ultimately be explained in terms we can understand.
  2. Descriptions and explanations are honestly based on observations of the natural world and can be changed as warranted by new observation.
  3. Humility谦卑, or willingness to accept the fact that we could be wrong is an important characteristic of the scientific method. The scientist must be willing to change his or her theories when warranted by the weight of the evidence.

What is "vitalism" or "vital spirit"-------Vitalism is the metaphysical 纯粹哲学的, 超自然的doctrine that living organism possess a non-physical inner force or energy that gives them the property of life. It belives that the laws of physics and chemistry alone cannot explain life functions and processes. One example of which is Qi gong It is now replaced by physiology.

What are the advantages of four chambered heart?

  • The heart performs two main functions — pumping blood to the lungs (pulmonary circulation), and pumping blood around the body (systemic circulation). The four-chambered heart is the most efficient design because it separates the pulmonary and systemic circulations — there is no mixing of oxygenated blood from the lungs with deoxygenated blood from the body.
  • This separation also confers another advantage — the ability to grow to much larger sizes than animals with incomplete separation of pulmonary and systemic circulation (e.g. lizards, with three-chambered hearts). Large animals need high pressures from the systemic left ventrical to pump blood around the body, and such pressures would rupture the delicate tissues in the lungs if the pulmonary system were not separate. In the four-chambered heart, the right ventrical is much smaller and provides the correct pressure to send blood to the lungs.

Theory-----A proved hypothesis. 1) Cell theory: all life starts with a cell. Human(sperm and egg). 2) Evolution.

Teleology----- the philosophical study of design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in nature or huam creations. It is the doctrin of final purpose. All things designed with a purpose in mind and we can trace the path of evolution to the small.

Steps of scientific method

  1. Observation: first thing to start out of curiosity. can be visual or mental observation.
  2. Study/Experiment: to gether date
  3. Analyze date
  4. Form a hypothesis: an educated guess of how things work, an attempy to explain how things work.
  5. Test hypothesis: design experiment.
  6. Modify hypothesis
  7. Repeat over and over
  8. "Good" hypothesis
  9. Publish paper and date on scientific journal.
  10. Peer review
  11. Theory

Homeostasis----- the constancy坚定不移 of internal environment.

Negative feedback loops

  1. Sensor must be able to detect deviations from a set point. A set point for body temperature, blood glucose concentration, the tension on a tendon.
  3. When a sensor detects a deviation from a particular set point, it must relay this information to an integrating center which receives information from many different sensor. The integrating center is often a particular region of brain or spinal cord, or a group of cells in an endocrine gland.
  5. The relative strengths of different sensory inputs are weighed in the integrating center, which responds by either increasing or decreasing the activity of particular effector( generally muscle or glands) . A direct opposite of what happened.

Antagonistic反对的 effector:

posted by C-T @ 5:11 PM

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