homeostasis, feedback loops and temperature control

Question 1

What is homeostasis?

Answer 1

Homeostasis is processes within a complex organism to control all of the tissues and organs to keep the body stable

Question 2

What is endocrinology?

Answer 2

Endocrinology is the study of hormones, their receptors and the intracellular signalling pathways they evoke

Question 3

What are most homeostatic mechanisms controlled through?

Answer 3

The nervous and endocrine systems which are usually negative feedback systems

Question 4

What are the two main components to homeostasis?

Answer 4

Behavioural and biological processes

Question 5

What is the receptors job?

Answer 5

Receptors/sensors detect details in the internal environment, particularly the details which may cause damage to the environment or a specific component in it.

Question 6

How many things can each receptor/sensor detect?

Answer 6

One which is why there is usually many in organisms.

Question 7

What does the control centre do in a feedback loop?

Answer 7

Takes in information from the receptors and then decides on the best course of action to fix it. If something does need to be fixed it will send information to the effectors.

Question 8

What do the effectors do in a feedback loop?

Answer 8

Effectors act on information given by the control centre and act to adjust whatever they have been told to.

Question 9

What is a negative back loops role?

Answer 9

A negative feedback loop word on he principle that the body needs specific factors in specific ranges so if something has deviated from this range it works to fix it.

Question 10

Why does the body regulate carbon dioxide?

Answer 10

The body needs to regulate carbon dioxide as it is needed in the body however if there is too much carbon dioxide it is toxic to the cells so it is very important to monitor the levels.

Question 11

What would happen if the levels of carbon dioxide got too high?

Answer 11

If the levels of carbon dioxide got too high then this information would be noticed by the sensors and then passed on to the central nervous system. The central nervous system would then choose a corrective action to normalise the levels.

Question 12

Why is maintaining a correct constant body temperature so important for organisms survival?

Answer 12

Maintaining a certain temperature is very important as the internal organs need to be at a constant temperature to survive.

Question 13

What happens to most cells if the body was to rise above 45 degrees Celsius?

Answer 13

The majority of proteins in the cells would become inactive and will be unable to carry out their functions

Question 14

What happens to the cells if they drop below 0 degrees?

Answer 14

The water in the cells would freeze and growth of ice crystals would then occur which causes disruption to the cell membrane and kills the organism.

Question 15

What are the two key temperatures in an organism?

Answer 15

The shell temperature= the temp of the peripheral systems
The core temperature= the temperature that the core organs are kept at to work as efficiently as possible

Question 16

What is more serious if it deviates the core or shell temperature?

Answer 16

The core temperature is most important not to deviate as if the temperature here deviates it can be quite damaging and even fatal. Temperature deviations of the shell temperature muscles become inactive and unable to function sometimes but rarely cause major issues.

Question 17

How does the body cope with managing temperature deviations?

Answer 17

By measuring the blood temperature through sensors in the mouth, skin, spinal cord and brain

Question 18

What is the area of the brain mainly concerned with homeostasis?

Answer 18

The hypothalamus

Question 19

What part if the hypothalamus works to compare temperatures?

Answer 19

The front/anterior of the hypothalamus possesses a mechanism which compares the ideal temperature to the temperature the body is experiencing. If it does notice deviations it will send the information to the effectors to make appropriate adjustments.

Question 20

What does the body do if the temperature is too high?

Answer 20

It causes vasodilation of the arterioles near the skin which means more blood flows to the skin.

Question 21

How does sending warm blood to the skin reduce the body temperature?

Answer 21

As the warm blood just under the surface can then get cooled down by the outside temperature by radiating heat from it. Now the cooled down blood ca return to the core.

Question 22

How does sweating cool the body down?

Answer 22

Sweating cools down the body as it is an evaporative process so the evaporation of sweat into vapour diverts shell warmth away from the skin.

Question 23

How do voluntary actions increase body temperature?

Answer 23

As, for example, when a person exercises the muscles generate body heat as a waste product so it causes the body temperature to rise Meaning the body then uses the cooling down techniques.

Question 24

What happens if the body temperature drops too low?

Answer 24

When the body temperature drops too low, the arterioles in the skin constrict which causes a reduce in blood flow around the body to maintain as much warm blood at the core as possible. The body then begins to shiver which moves the muscles so heat is produced.

Question 25

What are the risks of the body constricting the peripheral vascular system to maintain core temperature?

Answer 25

It imposes as a risk as if a person experienced something such as being submerged in cold water, and then the peripheral vascular system constricted the intensity of this occurring would cause a sharp reduction of the blood flow. This would then mean the blood flow to the muscles would reduce and the person becomes less able to move and free themselves from the environment and sometimes become paralysed.

Question 26

What behavioural mechanisms can come into play if a person becomes to cold?

Answer 26

The person gets driven to find a warmer area to go or find another layer of clothing etc