NPB Vocab

TinBergen’s four questions

Function (adapt), Evolution (phylogeny), causation (mechanism), development (ontogeny)

Ultimate (evolutionary) explanations

Concerns why a behavior exists and how it benefits survival or reproduction

Proximate explanations

concerns how behavior works or what causes it

Adaptation (function)

why an organism behaves the way it does (enhances chance of survival or reproduction

Evolution (Phylogeny)

How did a species come to behave that way (change over generations)

Mechanism (causation)

What immediate factors in the environment or organisms cause a certain behavior (hormonal or response to real time events to an individual)

Developmental (Ontogeny)

How does behavior develop (something that is learned/observed)

What is homeostasis?

The maintenance of a dynamic steady state ; process where the value of a variable is defended against perturbation

What is a steady state?

(small scale) system that is in a steady state remains constant over time but requires adjusting

What are the levels of organization?

atom

molecule

organelle

cell

tissue

organ

system

organism

What are the 4 primary tissues

Muscle

nervous

epithelial

connective

What makes up muscle tissue (contraction)?

skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle

What makes up nervous tissue (signals)?

central and peripheral

What makes up epithelial tissue (exchange)?

epithelial sheets (form boundaries)

glands (secretion)

What makes up connective tissue (structural support)?

tendons

bones

blood

What is an organ?

2+ primary tissues organized to perform a function

What are the body systems?

circulatory, digestive, respiratory, urinary, skeletal, immune, muscular, integumentary

What makes up the circulatory system?

hear, blood vessels, and blood

What makes up the digestive system?

mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines, etc.

What makes up the respiratory system?

lungs and major airways

What makes up the urinary system?

kidneys, bladder, urethra

What makes up the skeletal system?

bones and joints

What makes up the immune system?

white blood cells and lymphoid organs

What makes up the muscular system?

skeletal muscles

What makes up the integumentary system?

skin and related structures

Body systems included in homeostasis

Nervous, endocrine, reproductive

What makes up the nervous system?

brain, spinal cord, nerves, and sensory organs

What makes up the endocrine system?

all hormone secreting glands

What makes up the reproductive system?

male and female gonads and related organs

What are examples of homeostasis?

nutrient concentration, partial pressure of O2 and CO2, concentration of metabolic waste, blood pH, blood osmolarity, concentration of Na+ K+ and other electrolytes, blood volume and pressure, and body temperature

What is a homeostatic control system?

an interconnected network of body components that work together to maintain a given factor relatively constant

To maintain homeostasis the control system must be able to:

detect deviation from normal, integrate this information with other information, make adjustments to restore the factor to normal

Do intrinsic and extrinsic control systems operate on negative feedback?

both intrinsic and extrinsic control systems generally operate on the principle of negative feedback

What is negative feedback?

a change in a controlled variable triggers a response that drives the variable in the opposite direction (cancelling it out)

What is a physiological example of negative feedback: temp regulation

What is a receptor?

a sensor that detects changes in the variable

What does the control center do?

regulates the body’s response

What does the effector do?

carries out the body’s response

What does the variable do?

The response of the effector tries to return the variable to homeostasis

What does the stimulus do?

It produces a change in the variable that the receptor detects

What is the process of homeostatic control?

receptor→ control center→ effector→ variable→ stimulus

Intrinsic

local controls are built into an organ

Extrinsic

systemic controls are initiated outside an organ to alter the organ’s activity

What is a physiological example of negative feedback?

Regulating glucose concentration

What is positive feedback?

amplifies the initial change ; moves system away from the set point

What are example of positive feedback?

Childbirth (contractions), breastfeeding, vomiting

How does positive feedback work in childbirth?

Estrogen is released from the ovaries that induces oxytocin receptors on the uterus. Oxytocin is released from the fetus and mothers posterior pituitary leading to stimulation of the uterus to contract and stimulates the placenta to make prostaglandins (stimulates more vigorous contractions) which causes more oxytocin to be released.

What is pathophysiology?

abnormal functioning of the body associated with disease (disruption in homeostasis) ; severe disruption leads to death

What is an exergonic reaction?

G < 0, spontaneous

What is an endergonic reaction?

G>0, non-spontaneous

What are enzymes?

They are biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions by lowering the activation energy and be reused multiple times (usually forward and reverse)

What happens to the enzymes?

They are not altered by reactions, each type recognizes and binds only to certain substrates

What do enzymes do to reduce the activation energy?

They need a specific orientation to bind to substrates, change conformation to make them interact faster

What affects the rate of reaction?

Concentration of reactants, activation energy, concentration of the enzyme, activity of the enzyme, concentration of cofactors

What causes enzyme saturation

occurs when substrates become so abundant all enzymes are working

What happens at allosteric sites

Substrates bind and release

What happens at covalent sites

Substrates become permanently binded until the enzyme releases them

What does positive modulation do to enzyme activity

they increase the affinity (speed) which leads to an increase in production rate

What is feedback inhibition?

The end product of a reaction acts an inhibitory modulator of specific enzyme (rate limiting enzyme) to cut production when it is too abundant.

What is ATP?

The biochemical way to store and use energy, energy stored in second and third phosphate groups. Turns into ADP when a cell needs energy.

Why do we need ATP?

For cellular survival, muscle contractions, active transport in cells and regulation of body temperature

What is metabolism

the series of chemical reactions that result in the degradation of macromolecules that take place in cells

What are the three functions of catabolism

Degrade damaged cell components, obtain raw material for anabolism, obtain energy (atp obtained from degradation of co2 and h2o)

phosphofructokinase

key enzyme involved in the control of glycolysis