Homeostasis and Response Flashcards
What is homeostasis?
The regulation of the conditions inside your body, to maintain a stable internal environment.
Why is homeostasis important?
It regulates the conditions in your body,
- This is necessary for making sure your body is at the right temperature so enzymes work effectively,
- Your body temperature will change depending on the external environment, if it is cold your body will heat up to keep you from being warm,
- Your nerve and hormonal systems are also used to regulate your bodies conditions, such as blood sugar levels and oestrogen during a woman’s period.
What are the three main components that work together to make up the automatic control systems?
- Receptors,
- Coordination centres (brain, spinal cord, pancreas),
- Effectors.
What method does your automatic control system use when trying to keep your internal environment stable?
Negative feedback:
This counters the changes that your body experiences.
How does negative feedback work?
- The receptor picks up a stimulus (levels of glucose in blood are too high),
- The coordination centre receives and processes the information than organises a response (knows that levels of glucose must decrease),
- The effectors produce a response, which counteracts the change and restores the optimum level (The level of sugar in the blood is reduced).
What is a possible issue with the effectors?
They keep changing the conditions in your body until told other wise by a different stimulus from the receptors.
For example, if the blood sugar levels are too high, the effectors lower the levels, but may lower the levels of glucose in the blood to be too low, which is dangerous. Luckily the receptors pick up on differences in your body quickly so the effectors can keep your body at optimum conditions.
What is the function of the nervous system?
To produce a reaction from your body after sensing a stimulus.
What are the different parts of the nervous system?
- CNS (central nervous system),
- Sensory neurones,
- Motor neurones,
- Effectors.
What is the CNS?
- Made up of the brain and spinal cord only, and is located mainly in the vertebrae of animals,
- The CNS is connected to the body by the sensory neurones and motor neurones.
What is the Sensory neurone?
The neurones that carry information as electrical impulses from the receptors to the CNS.
What is the motor neurones?
The neurones that carry electrical impulses from the CNS to effectors.
What are effectors?
- They respond to nervous impulses and and bring about a response,
- All muscles and glands are an example of effectors,
- They respond to nervous impulses, for example, may cause muscles to contract or glands to secrete hormones.
What are receptors?
- The cells that detect stimuli,
- There are loads of different receptors like taste and sound receptors on your tongue and in your ear respectively,
- Receptors can create large complex organs like the retina in the eye, the retina is covered in light receptors.
What are the stages of the nervous system?
- Stimulus,
- Receptor detects the stimulus,
- The sensory neurone sends information from the receptor to the CNS using an electrical pulse,
- The motor neurone sends information from the CNS (decision from the CNS) to the effector using an electrical impulse,
- The effector carries out the instruction from the CNS,
- Then the muscle responds based on the effector.
What is a synapse?
The connection between two neurones, it is a small gap where the two neurones connect.
How does an electrical pulse travel across the synapse?
A pulse reaches the synapse (gap in between two neurones),
A chemical is released from the neurone with the impulse and the chemical diffuses across the synapse to the other neurone.
These chemicals then set off a new electrical impulse in the next neurone, identical to the one before.
What are reflexes?
These are automatic reactions that your body does in response to a stimulus, this response and reaction does not happen within the conscious part of the brain.
What is the main advantage of reflexes?
They prevent injury.
What is a reflex arc?
The passage of information for a reflex to take place.
What is the pathway of information for a reflex arc?
- Your receptors sense a stimulus,
- Information is sent from the receptors to the CNS via the sensory neurone,
- The sensory neurones electrical impulse travels across the synapse onto the relay neurone in the CNS,
- The impulse is then transferred across a synapse onto the motor neurone,
- The impulse then goes to the effectors and the muscles contract.
Where is the relay neurone found?
CNS.
What is the method for the ruler drop test/ reaction time?
- The person being tested should not have taken any caffeine, or drugs that will enhance performance before the test,
- The person should have their arm resting on the edge of the table, their index finger and thumb should be open, leaving a gap for the ruler to be dropped,
- A separate person should align the 0cm mark of the ruler with the top of the fingers,
- This person should drop the ruler with no warning, the person catching should try and catch the ruler in between their two fingers,
- The length on the ruler at their fingers is their reaction time in cm,
- This test should be done 3 times to take an average (mean),
- Then do the same with the performer drinking a fizzy drink/ caffeine before so their reaction time should increase,
- See the difference in reaction time, the second round should be a smaller distance/ quicker reaction time.
What are other methods to test for reaction time?
computer tests:
- clicking a mouse when a stimulus appears,
- computers are more precise as software can be used to get the exact time in milliseconds,
- it is also completely random, the performer cannot predict when the dot will appear, unlike the ruler drop because body language can give it away.
What are the three parts of the brain in the GCSE spec and what is their function?
> medulla - controls unconscious activity (breathing),
Cerebellum - responsible for muscular contractions,
Cerebral cortex - responsible for conscious things (intelligence, memory and language)