The application of control theory to physiological systems pdf

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This article is also available for rental through DeepDyve. View Metrics. Email alerts Article activity alert. Advance article alerts. New issue alert. Receive exclusive offers and updates from Oxford Academic. Since Pavlov, physiologists have explained homeostasis—the regulation of bodily functions—as the action of fixed negative feedback networks within individual organ systems.

However, these standard explanations largely ignore the mechanisms of conditioning and learning. Dworkin challenges traditional concepts and argues that learning mechanisms of the nervous system are essential to regulation. Dworkin shows how, through experience, learning mechanisms determine dynamic stability and the long-term regulation of heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, electrolytes, and temperature. He argues that "hard wired" mechanisms do not adequately account for the speed and accuracy of physiological adjustments, and supports his contention with detailed analyses and mathematical models of how conditioned and unconditioned reflexes interact.

Dworkin reviews a wealth of research on interoceptive conditioning, conditioned drug responses, and visceral adjustment. Each lesson includes clearly displayed labels and specific coloring instructions. This book is an invaluable and lasting resource for students in disciplines including anatomy and physiology, biology, nursing, physical therapy and rehabilitation, medical technology, nutrition, physical education, allied health and health sciences.

Rhythms are a basic phenomenon in all physiological systems. They cover an enormous range of frequencies with periods from the order of milliseconds up to some years. They are described by many disciplines and are investigated usually in the context of the physiology of the respective function or organ.

The importance given to the research on rhythmicity is quite different in different systems. In some cases where the functional significance is obvious rhythms are at the center of interest, as in the case of respiration or locomotion. In other fields they are considered more or less as interesting epiphenomena or at best as indicators without essential functional significance, as in the case of cardiovascular or EEG rhythms.

Recently the study of physiological rhythms has attracted growing interest in several fields, especially with respect to rhythm research in humans and its rapidly spreading applications in basic behavioral research, and as a diagnostic tool in clinical medicine.

This development was favored by two methodological and conceptual ad vances: on the one hand, the availability of non-invasive methods of continu ous recording of physiological parameters and their computer-assisted evaluation, and on the other, the rapid development of theoretical analyses, for example, the understanding of dynamic systems, the generation of coordinated macroscopic pro cesses in systems comprising many single elements, and the mathematical tools for treating nonlinear oscillators and their mutual coupling.

Instant Notes in Human Physiology will be valuable to students in whatever context they are studying physiology. It explains fundamental concepts and the major physiological systems, showing how they are integrated, without overloading the reader with information. Since Pavlov, physiologists have explained homeostasis—the regulation of bodily functions—as the action of fixed negative feedback networks within individual organ systems.

However, these standard explanations largely ignore the mechanisms of conditioning and learning. Dworkin challenges traditional concepts and argues that learning mechanisms of the nervous system are essential to regulation. Dworkin shows how, through experience, learning mechanisms determine dynamic stability and the long-term regulation of heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, electrolytes, and temperature.