Lecture 1, Wednesday, September 3:    Individual Differences

Goals:

Gain a detailed understanding of one example of homeostasis, the maintenance of body temperature by several physiological systems working together.  

Usually we look at the variety of responses by a group of subjects, and try to make some generalizations about the group.  But sometimes it is useful to focus on the individuals within the group and try to understand why they differ in their responses.

Learn how your textbook differs from popular science articles and primary research articles, both in the writing style and the amount of detail included.  

Develop a questioning attitude towards reports of scientific research that you read in newspapers and magazines.  

You should already know:

...the concepts of homeostasis and negative feedback and the general principles of thermoregulation - how our bodies maintain relatively constant temperatures when we move into hot or cold environments.  But we'll review these in class.

Lecture:

About the course
Homeostasis and negative feedback
Thermoregulation
Individual differences

Slides: 
If you can't see the slides, let me know. 

  • Method A This lets you see the slides quickly, with no animation
  • Method B This messed up some of the fonts
  • Method CYou should be able to see animations here, just click on the slide to advance
  • Method D This is the original file, so you can save it on your computer and open in PowerPoint, see the animations
    You can click as usual on this link (and enter your UNI/password) and the slides will open on a web page.  OR you can RIGHT-click on it, save it on your computer, and then open it PowerPoint.  

Reading:

Sherwood: 
5th 1-19 Homeostasis and negative feedback
654-662 Temperature regulation
4th 1-14 Homeostasis and negative feedback
621-630 Temperature regulation

Optional reading:
"Age matters when exercising in hot climates" Recent research from Penn State
MRI shows people feel pain differently Individual differences in sensitivity to pain

Medical reference:
Hypothermia and cold weather injuries
Keeping sports participants safe in hot weather The Physician and Sports Medicine, July 1999

Assignment:

Assignment #1
Experimental design - Deciding what to measure
Jared Diamond, "Pearl Harbor and the Emperor's Physiologists", Natural History, Dec 1991, pp. 2-8

Test yourself:

Nuts and Bolts
Define homeostasis, negative feedback, ICF, ISF, ECF, plasma.
Explain what is meant by sensors, integrators, effectors in the context of homeostasis.
Where are the sensors, integrators, effectors for maintaining body temperature?

Problem solving
Problem Set 1:  Questions 1-13