Introduction- homeostasis can be described as the property of the organisms, tissues and the cells that allows the regulation and maintenance of the constancy and the stability for proper functioning of the body. An example of homeostasis is the maintenance of the blood pressure inside the human body through the different adjustments in the cardiovascular systems, neuromuscular systems and the hormonal systems (Modell et al., 2015).

            Homeostatic feedback system- the negative feedback system is the most common type of the regulation system and it maintains the homeostatic balance of the human body. This system acts to alter the direction of the change in temperature so as to maintain the things constant. For example, when carbon dioxide levels increases in air, the lungs are signalled by brain to exhale more amount of carbon dioxide. This causes an increase in the exhalation rate of carbon dioxide and the levels of carbon dioxide is balanced and lungs function in a normal way. Similarly, when the body temperature increases, then the receptors automatically present on the hypothalamus and skin are able to sense the change in temperature and it triggers the brain to make some changes. The changes include the dilation of the blood vessels that are present near the skin so that body temperature can be reduced which is also called thermoregulation and the it also falls under the negative feedback loop. Maintenance of the homeostasis involves a negative feedback loop and the loop itself acts to oppose the stimulus (Fossion, Rivera & Estanol, 2018). If the high temperatures are detected by the sensors, the nerve cells that are present on the nerve cell ending present in the brain and the skin. The same is dependent on the temperature control portion of the brain and after that the set of information are processed so that the effectors can be activated. The activators here are the sweat glands and the task of the sweat glands is to resist the stimulus by bringing the body to the regular temperature. Thus, with the increment of body temperature, the blood vessels also increases in diameters that results into significant amount of heat releasing to the surrounded environment. Along with that, the sweat glands secrete the fluid to use the thermal effect of fluid evaporation from the outer surface body reduce the body temperature. The regular temperature of body is maintained by losing heat to the environment. While on the other hand when the body temperature falls the opposite happens (Kotas & Medzhitov, 2015).

Figure 1: Homeostatic feedback system [source: Modell et al., 2015]

Reference

Fossion, R., Rivera, A. L., & Estanol, B. (2018). A physicist’s view of homeostasis: how time series of continuous monitoring reflect the function of physiological variables in regulatory mechanisms. Physiological measurement, 39(8), 084007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6579/aad8db

Kotas, M. E., & Medzhitov, R. (2015). Homeostasis, inflammation, and disease susceptibility. Cell, 160(5), 816-827. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.010

Modell, H., Cliff, W., Michael, J., McFarland, J., Wenderoth, M. P., & Wright, A. (2015). A physiologist’s view of homeostasis. Advances in physiology education, 39(4), 259-266. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1152%2Fadvan.00107.2015