CHAPTER

1
Introduction to
Physiological
Principles

PowerPoint® Lecture Slides prepared by

Stephen Gehnrich, Salisbury University

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 Physiology

“The study of how animals work”

Knut Schmidt-Nielsen (1915–2007)

Structure and function of various parts

 How these parts work together
Diversity of animals due to evolution
 More than 1 million species live on Earth
Unifying themes
 Apply to all physiological processes

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 Biological Levels of Organization

August Krogh Principle:” For every biological problem there is

An organism on which it can be most conveniently studied.
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 Physiological Processes Obey the Laws of
Physics and Chemistry

 Fick’s Laws of Diffusion: Adolf Fick

 1st Law: “ Substances diffuse from areas of high
concentration to areas of low concentration.”
 Movement of substances from areas of high
potential energy to areas of low potential
energy
 Sources of potential energy: concentration
gradient, voltage or electrical gradient,
temperature gradient, pressure gradient

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 Physiological Processes Obey the Laws of
Physics and Chemistry
 Fick’s 2nd law of diffusion: “ The amount of a
substance that diffuses across a surface is
proportional to the area of that surface and
inversely proportional to the distance across
which the substance must diffuse.”
 Mechanical properties of a structure influence its
function
 Electrical potentials are fundamental in the
functions of neurons and muscles
 Temperature affects physiological processes at all
levels of biological organization
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 Body size Influences Physiological Patterns
Allometric Scaling Equation: shows the relationship
between body mass and metabolic rate as described by the
equation y = aMb

Figure 1.3
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 Basis for Evolution and Natural Selection

 Variation among individuals for specific traits

 Traits must be heritable
 Traits must increase fitness
 That is, must increase reproductive success
 Relative fitness of different genotypes depends on
the environment
 If the environment changes, the trait may no longer be
beneficial

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 Not All Differences are Adaptations

Genetic drift
 Random changes in the frequency of genotypes
over time
 Independent of adaptive evolution
 Most common in small populations
 For example, forest fire resulting in founder effect

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 Evolutionary Relationships

 Despite the diversity in animal form and function,

there are many similarities
 Common evolutionary ancestors
 Closely related species share more features than
distantly related species
 Understanding evolution is necessary to
understanding physiological diversity

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 Physiological Processes are Shaped by
Evolution

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 Phenotypes: Homologous or Analogous

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 ACTIVITY:

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 Guide Questions : Think, Pair- Share
1. Give the systems that were working actively when you
performed your activity. What is the specific role of
each system in that particular activity?
2. What generalization or conclusion can you draw based
on question #1?
3. Give examples of physiological changes in your body
that you experienced during and after the activity.
4. Why do you think those physiological changes occur?
5. What type of feedback mechanism (Positive or
Negative) did your body utilize to regulate your
physiological processes? Justify your answer

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 Physiological Regulation
Strategies for coping with changing conditions
 Conformers – allow internal conditions to change
with external conditions
 Regulators – maintain relatively constant internal
conditions regardless of external conditions

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 Organisms must maintain homeostasis to
survive in diverse environments.
 Homeostasis is the maintenance of constant internal conditions (
Walter Cannon , 1929)
 Allostasis: process of achieving homeostasis through
physiological changes ( allostatic response: short term or long
term)
 Homeostatic imbalance – a disturbance in homeostasis
resulting in disease

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 Homeostasis Controlled by Feedback loops
or Reflex Control Pathways

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 Antagonistic Controls

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 Feedback Mechanisms
• Negative feedback
• Includes most homeostatic control
mechanisms
• Shuts off the original stimulus, or reduces
its intensity
• Deviation from the set point, is made
smaller or is resisted
• It does NOT prevent variation but maintains
variation within a normal range
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Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings
 Feedback Mechanisms

• Positive feedback
• Increases the original stimulus to push the
variable farther, causing a greater deviation
from the set point.

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 Phenotype, Genotype, and the Environment

Phenotype is a product of genotype and its interaction

with the environment
 Genotype – genetic makeup
 Phenotype – morphology, physiology, and behavior
 Phenotypic plasticity – single genotype generates
more than one phenotype depending on
environmental conditions as a result of developmental
plasticity

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 Phenotypic Plasticity
Can be irreversible or reversible
 Irreversible
Polyphenism

Figure 1.5
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 Phenotypic Plasticity

 Reversible
 Acclimation – process of change in response to
laboratory conditions
 Acclimatization – process of change in response to
natural environment

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Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings
 History of Animal Physiology

Hippocrates (460–circa 377 B.C.)

 Father of medicine
Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
 Father of natural history
 Relationship between structure and function
Claudius Galenus, “Galen” (129–circa 199)
 First experimental physiologist

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 History of Animal Physiology

Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288)

 Anatomy of heart and lungs
Jean-Francois Fernal (1497–1558)
 Outlined current knowledge of human health and
disease
Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564)
 First modern anatomy textbook
William Harvey (1578–1657)
 Circulation of blood through the body by
contractions of the heart
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 History of Animal Physiology
Herman Boerhaave and Albrecht von Haller (1700s)
 Bodily functions are a combination of chemical and
physical processes
Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann (1838)
 “Cell theory”
Claude Bernard (1813–1878)
 Milieu interieur (internal environment)
 Internal environment distinct from external
environment
Walter Cannon (1871–1945)
 “Homeostasis”
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 History of Animal Physiology

Per Scholander (1905–1980)

 Comparative physiology
C. Ladd Prosser (1907–2002)
 Central pattern generators
Knut Schmidt-Nielsen (1915–2007)
 Animals in harsh and unusual environments

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 History of Animal Physiology

George Bartholomew (1923–2006)

 Ecological physiology
Peter Hochachka (1937–2002) and George Somero
(1941– )
 Biochemical adaptations

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 Process that Causes Physiological Variation

 Developmental physiology
 Change as animal grows
 Environmental physiology
 Change in response to environment
 Evolutionary physiology
 Change due to natural selection

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