Regulation - It's All About Homeostasis

Homeostasis is a term that is used to both describe the survival of organisms in an ecosystem and
to describe the successful survival of cells inside of an organism. Organisms and populations can
maintain homeostasis in an environment when they have a steady level of births and deaths. It is
similar to the idea of equilibrium.
When discussing the internal workings of an organism, homeostasis describes an environment
that supports the survival of cells. All of your body's systems work together maintain
homeostasis inside of your body. Homeostasis is achieved by making sure the temperature, pH
(acidity), and oxygen levels (and many other factors) are set just right for your cells to survive.
Homeostasis levels are different for each species.

Negative Feedback
Negative feedback is a process that happens when your systems need to slow down or
completely stop a process that is happening. When you eat, food travels into your stomach, and
digestion begins. You don't need your stomach working if you aren't eating. The digestive system
works with a series of hormones and nervous impulses to stop and start the secretion of acids in
your stomach. Another example of negative feedback occurs when your body's temperature
begins to rise and a negative feedback response works to counteract and stop the rise in
temperature. Sweating is a good example of negative feedback.

Positive Feedback
Positive feedback is the opposite of negative feedback in that encourages a physiological
process or amplifies the action of a system. Positive feedback is a cyclic process that can
continue to amplify your body's response to a stimulus until a negative feedback response takes
over. An example of positive feedback also can happen in your stomach. Your stomach normally
secretes a compound called pepsinogen that is an inactive enzyme. As your body converts
pepsinogen to the enzyme pepsin, it triggers a process that helps convert other pepsinogen
molecules to pepsin. This cascade effect occurs and soon your stomach has enough pepsin
molecules to digest proteins.

Body Temperature Example

A good example of system regulation of your body can be found in the regulation of body
temperatures. You are a homoeothermic organism, which means you regulate your own body
temperature. Other species like reptiles are not homoeothermic. Anyway, if your body gets too
cold, a series of actions are taken to warm your body. Sensors throughout your nervous system
can recognize when the temperature drops and might trigger your muscular system to start
shivering. The constant contractions of your muscles allow heat to be generated. Your nervous

and endocrine systems may also contract the blood vessels of your circulatory system to keep
blood in the core of your body and not the extremities (like fingers).

The biological definition of homeostasis is the tendency of an organism or cell to regulate its
internal environment and maintain equilibrium, usually by a system of feedback controls, so as to
stabilize health and functioning. Generally, the body is in homeostasis when its needs are met
and its functioning properly.
Every organ in the body contributes to homeostasis. A complex set of chemical, thermal, and
neural factors interact in complex ways, both helping and hindering the body while it works to
maintain homeostasis.

Homeostatic control
To maintain homeostasis, communication within the body is essential. The image below is an
example of how a homeostatic control system works. Here is a brief explanation:
1. Stimulus produces a change to a variable (the factor being regulated).
2. Receptor detects the change. The receptor monitors the environment and
responds to change (stimuli).
3. Input information travels along the (afferent) pathway to the control center.
The control center determines the appropriate response and course of action.
4. Output information sent from the control center travels down the (efferent)
pathway to the effector.
5. Response a response from the effector balances out the original stimulus to
maintain homeostasis.

Interactions among the elements of a homeostatic control system maintain stable internal
conditions by using positive and negative feedback mechanisms.

Think of it as an extremely complex balancing act. Heres a few more definitions you may want
to know.
Afferent pathways carry nerve impulses into the central nervous system. For instance, if you
felt scorching heat on your hand, the message would travel through afferent pathways to your
central nervous system.
Efferent pathways carry nerve impulses away from the central nervous system to effectors
(muscles, glands).
The feeling of heat would travel through an afferent pathway to the central nervous system. It
would then interact with the effector and travel down the efferent pathway, eventually making
the person remove their hand from the scorching heat.
Negative feedback mechanisms

Almost all homeostatic control mechanisms are negative feedback mechanisms. These
mechanisms change the variable back to its original state or ideal value.
A good example of a negative feedback mechanism is a home thermostat (heating system). The
thermostat contains the receptor (thermometer) and control center. If the heating system is set at
70 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat (effector) is turned on if the temperature drops below 70 degrees
Fahrenheit. After the heater heats the house to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it shuts off effectively
maintaining the ideal temperature.
The control of blood sugar (glucose) by insulin is another good example of a negative feedback
mechanism. When blood sugar rises, receptors in the body sense a change . In turn, the control
center (pancreas) secretes insulin into the blood effectively lowering blood sugar levels. Once
blood sugar levels reach homeostasis, the pancreas stops releasing insulin.
These are just two examples of negative feedback mechanisms within our body, there are 100s,
can you think of a few more?
Positive feedback mechanisms
A positive feedback mechanism is the exact opposite of a negative feedback mechanism. With
negative feedback, the output reduces the original effect of the stimulus. In a positive feedback
system, the output enhances the original stimulus. A good example of a positive feedback system
is child birth. During labor, a hormone called oxytocin is released that intensifies and speeds up
contractions. The increase in contractions causes more oxytocin to be released and the cycle goes
on until the baby is born. The birth ends the release of oxytocin and ends the positive feedback
mechanism.
Another good example of a positive feedback mechanism is blood clotting. Once a vessel is
damaged, platelets start to cling to the injured site and release chemicals that attract more
platelets. The platelets continue to pile up and release chemicals until a clot is formed.

Just remember that positive feedback mechanisms enhance the original stimulus and negative
feedback mechanisms inhibit it.
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What Is Negative Feedback

Most of us have, at some point, experienced the infamous thermostat battle in our homes.
Someone likes it warm, someone else likes it cool, maybe you like it somewhere in between. If
the temperature in the house is 70 degrees, and someone changes the thermostat to 68 degrees,
then the thermostat kicks on the AC to cool the house down two degrees. When someone else
comes along and turns the thermostat to 75, it will kick on the heat to warm the house (or maybe
just stop the AC for a little while).
The thermostat is a prime example of negative feedback, and we see the same thing happen in
the biochemistry of living things. Negative feedback is a regulatory mechanism in which a
'stimulus' causes an opposite 'output' in order to maintain an ideal level of whatever is being
regulated.

Steps of Negative Feedback Loops

All negative feedback loops occur in a series of steps. Let's continue to use a thermostat as an
example.
1. You have a stimulus, in which a change occurs. In this case, the temperature
in the house increases.
2. You have a sensor, or the change is detected. In our scenario, the thermostat
registers the increase in temperature.
3. There's a control, which is just a response to the change: the thermostat
sends a signal to decrease the temperature.
4. There's an effector, or the effect of the response. This could be the AC
turning on to bring the temperature in the house back down to normal or the
heater stopping for a period of time until the temperature is brought back
down to normal.

If the temperature were to keep dropping down until it is too cold, then the process would repeat
itself, but this time, the response (or control) would be to increase the temperature to bring it
back to normal. A negative feedback loop serves to keep a certain variable in check, temperature
in this case.

Negative Feedback in Living Things

Your body has its own internal controller for maintaining its temperature, pH, hormone levels,
blood sugar and other internal variable levels at homeostasis, which is the optimal internal state
at which your body operates best. The controller of homeostasis in most animals is the

hypothalamus. Without this structure in the brain, organisms would have great difficulty
functioning normally.
There are many negative feedback pathways in biological systems, including:

Temperature regulation
Blood pressure regulation

Blood sugar regulation

Thyroid regulation

Photosynthesis in response to increased carbon dioxide

Predator/prey population dynamic

Examples of Negative Feedback Loops

This diagram shows the steps of the negative feedback loop, as well as how it works in
temperature regulation.

As you can see, the body exceeds a certain temperature, this is detected by nerve cells that report
back to the part of the brain that regulates temperature, and the brain sends out a signal for the
body to cool itself down by sweating. Pretty efficient!