Study Guide I
Human Body/ Intro
• Define anatomy and physiology and list the levels of structural organization
o Anatomy: The study of structure
▪ Microscopic
▪ Gross/Macroscopic
▪ Developmental
o Physiology: The study of function
▪ Form follows function
o Chemical → Molecule → cell → tissue → Organ → Organ System → Organism
• Define homeostasis and what systems primarily control/ regulate it
o Maintenance of a relatively stable internal environment despite continuous changes in the external
environment.
▪ Maintaining balance or dynamic equilibrium
▪ Primarily controlled by the nervous and endocrine system
• Nervous: Fast-acting control
• Endocrine: Long-term control
▪ Example: If it is 100 degrees or 10 degrees outside, your body will do things to ensure that it
doesn’t become 100 or 10 degrees.
▪ Ability to resist change
o Refers to your body but also refers to cells.
▪ There are many cells in your body that maintain homeostasis themselves
• Describe the components of a homeostatic control mechanism (negative feedback loop)
o Receptor: Picks up info and alerts system
▪ Monitors the environment
▪ If you go outside and it is hot, there are receptors in your skin that alert the system
o Control Center: Addresses issue
▪ Usually the nervous system, sometimes it is the endocrine organ.
▪ Decides what to do with the information it has received and decides what to do
o Effector: Part of the body that does the responding
▪ Doing what the control center decided to do to respond
• Feedback may either by negative (typical) or positive (rare)
o Positive: Snowball events
▪ Stimulus → Body exacerbates stimulus
▪ EX: Childbirth
o Ex: Stimulus: Too hot
▪ Receptor: Dermal receptor – respond to temp → Send a signal to your brain
(hypothalamus)
▪ Control Center: Hypothalamus → Decides what to do and sends a single to the effector
(Sweat glands)
▪ Effector: Those sweat glands cool you down and you should be back in equilibrium
o Ex: Cold
▪ Receptor: Dermal tissue
▪ Control Center: Hypothalamus
▪ Effector: Muscle – another effector is blood vessels in the limbs – blood vessels constrict in
your limbs and keep blood on your core.
▪ Response: Shivering
• If all goes well, shivering should warm you back up
o Ex: Eat a lot of sugar
▪ Stimulus: Blood sugar rises
▪ Receptor: Cells in the pancreas that directly respond to sugar
▪ Control center: Secrete more insulin (drops your blood pressure)
• Insulin is the way that the pancreas is signaling to the effector
▪ Effector: Cells take the sugar out of your blood
▪ Response: Blood sugar goes down
Human Body/ Intro
• Define anatomy and physiology and list the levels of structural organization
o Anatomy: The study of structure
▪ Microscopic
▪ Gross/Macroscopic
▪ Developmental
o Physiology: The study of function
▪ Form follows function
o Chemical → Molecule → cell → tissue → Organ → Organ System → Organism
• Define homeostasis and what systems primarily control/ regulate it
o Maintenance of a relatively stable internal environment despite continuous changes in the external
environment.
▪ Maintaining balance or dynamic equilibrium
▪ Primarily controlled by the nervous and endocrine system
• Nervous: Fast-acting control
• Endocrine: Long-term control
▪ Example: If it is 100 degrees or 10 degrees outside, your body will do things to ensure that it
doesn’t become 100 or 10 degrees.
▪ Ability to resist change
o Refers to your body but also refers to cells.
▪ There are many cells in your body that maintain homeostasis themselves
• Describe the components of a homeostatic control mechanism (negative feedback loop)
o Receptor: Picks up info and alerts system
▪ Monitors the environment
▪ If you go outside and it is hot, there are receptors in your skin that alert the system
o Control Center: Addresses issue
▪ Usually the nervous system, sometimes it is the endocrine organ.
▪ Decides what to do with the information it has received and decides what to do
o Effector: Part of the body that does the responding
▪ Doing what the control center decided to do to respond
• Feedback may either by negative (typical) or positive (rare)
o Positive: Snowball events
▪ Stimulus → Body exacerbates stimulus
▪ EX: Childbirth
o Ex: Stimulus: Too hot
▪ Receptor: Dermal receptor – respond to temp → Send a signal to your brain
(hypothalamus)
▪ Control Center: Hypothalamus → Decides what to do and sends a single to the effector
(Sweat glands)
▪ Effector: Those sweat glands cool you down and you should be back in equilibrium
o Ex: Cold
▪ Receptor: Dermal tissue
▪ Control Center: Hypothalamus
▪ Effector: Muscle – another effector is blood vessels in the limbs – blood vessels constrict in
your limbs and keep blood on your core.
▪ Response: Shivering
• If all goes well, shivering should warm you back up
o Ex: Eat a lot of sugar
▪ Stimulus: Blood sugar rises
▪ Receptor: Cells in the pancreas that directly respond to sugar
▪ Control center: Secrete more insulin (drops your blood pressure)
• Insulin is the way that the pancreas is signaling to the effector
▪ Effector: Cells take the sugar out of your blood
▪ Response: Blood sugar goes down
