Fundamentals of Physiology

Definition and history of Human Physiology

The difference between the questions of why and how of animal function
Understanding human physiology through the comparative and evolutionary
approach

Dra. Renée Lira, Ph.D

 History of Animal Physiology
Hippocrates (460-377 BC)
the father of medicine)

Aristotle (384-322 BC,

the father of natural history)

The importance that Hippocrates gave to the meticulous

observation in the treatment of the disease and the one
that Aristotle conceded to the relationship between
structure and function caused them to be considered as
relevant figures in the history of physiology.
History of Animal Physiology
• Claudio Galeno (129-199) was the first to use
experiments designed in a systematic and careful
way to verify the function of the body. Galen used
the dissection and vivisection of non-human
primates such as the Barbary monkey and other
mammals to test their physiological ideas.
He demonstrated how various muscles are controlled by the spinal cord.
He identified seven pairs of cranial nerves.
He showed that the brain is the organ responsible for controlling the voice.
He demonstrated the functions of the kidney and the bladder.
He showed that blood flows through the arteries, not air.
He discovered structural differences between veins and arteries.
He described the valves of the heart.
He described various infectious diseases (such as the plague of years 165-170) and their spread.
History of Animal Physiology

• Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288). During the Middle Ages the

traditions the medical doctors of the ancient Greeks
were practiced and developed by doctors in the
Muslim world, Ibn al-Nafis, was the first to correctly
describe the anatomy of the heart, the coronary
circulation, the structure of the lungs and the
pulmonary circulation. He was also the first to describe
the relationship between the lungs and the ventilation
of the blood.
History of Animal Physiology
• Jean-François Fernal (1497-1558). The Renaissance provided an
impetus to physiological research in the West. Outlined the
current knowledge of human health and disease.

• William Harvey (1578-1657) identified the path of blood in the body, and
showed that contractions of the heart caused this movement. Although Harvey
could not observe the fine capillaries that connect the arteries with the veins,
he postulated that the capillaries must exist to form a closed circulation around
the body for blood. Harvey demonstrated how dissections, close observation of
living organisms and fine experiments could be combined to teach us about the
functions of the body.
Fundamentals of Physiology
• Comparative physiology and environmental physiology are additional
approaches to the study of animal physiology.
• These approaches overlap mechanical and evolutionary physiology and
each other.
• Comparative physiology is the synthetic study of the functioning of all
animals. It is called that because one of its main objectives is to
systematically compare the ways that different types of animals have to
carry out different functions, such as vision, breathing or circulation.
• Environmental physiology (also called physiological ecology) is the study of
how animals respond physiologically to environmental conditions or
challenges.
Fundamentals of Physiology: Subdisciplines in
physiological research

• An animal physiologist specializes in one or two subdisciplines of

physiology, with a basic knowledge in the other related subdisciplines.
• There are three main ways to define physiological subdisciplines:
• by the level of biological organization
• due to the nature of the process that originates the physiological
variety
• and for the latest research achievements
Fundamentals of Physiology:
Subdisciplines in physiological research

The physiological subdisciplines can be differentiated by the biological

level of differentiation
• Since physiology is related to biological function at many levels of
organization, one of the most common ways to differentiate branches
of physiology is by referring to those levels.
• Cellular and molecular physiologists study the phenomena that
occur at the cellular level, although these effects have important
consequences for higher levels of organization. Cellular and molecular
physiologists include researchers studying molecular genetics, signal
transduction, metabolic biochemistry or membrane biophysics.
Fundamentals of Physiology:
Subdisciplines in physiological research

• A body physiologist is more commonly interested in the way in which

healthy animals carry out a specific process or behavior.
• For example, a body physiologist could study changes in the animal's
metabolic rate in response to a stimulus such as temperature. A
characteristic of the organism such as the metabolic rate is the
product of many physiological systems that interact in a complex way.
Some body physiologists specialize in groups of particular animals;
Thus, there are marine mammal physiologists, avian physiologists,
etc.
Fundamentals of Physiology:
Subdisciplines in physiological research

• Many physiologists focus their study on specific physiological

systems. A systems physiologist is interested in the way in which cells
and tissues interact to carry out specific tasks within the whole
animal. Therefore, there are respiratory physiologists, sensory
physiologists, and so on.
The Importance of Physiology
Physiology seeks to answer two central questions about how animals work:

1) What is the mechanism by which a function is accomplished

2) How did that mechanism come to be?

The objective of physiology is to explain the physical and chemical factors

responsible for the origin, development and progression of life.
In brief, physiology is one of the key disciplines for understanding:
• The fundamental biology of all animals
• Human health and disease
• The health and disease of nonhuman animals of importance in human affairs
The Importance of Physiology
• Physiology (from Greek physis, nature, and logos, knowledge, study)
is the science that studies the functions of multicellular (living)
beings.
• Physiology, in fact, is most clearly distinguished from other biological
disciplines with which it is related, such as morphology or ecology, by
its central focus on the study of mechanism.
• In physiology, mechanism refers to the components of actual, living
animals and the interactions among those components that enable
the animals to perform as they do.
The Importance of
Physiology
Physiology is as important for understanding
the health and disease of nonhuman animals as
it is for understanding health and disease in
humans.
An example is provided by studies of another
group of migrating animals, the Pacific
salmon—which swim up rivers to reach their
spawning grounds (Figure 1.1).
FIGURE 1.1 Pacific salmon migrating upriver to their
Physiologists have measured the costs these spawning grounds. Having spent several years feeding
and growing in the Pacific Ocean, these fish have once
fish incur to swim upstream and leap waterfalls. again found the river in which they were conceived.
Now they must power their way back to their birthplace
to spawn, even though they ate their last meal at sea
and will starve throughout their upriver journey. Shown
are sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka).
Physiology is also important because it is one of biology’s most
integrative disciplines.

Physiologists study all the levels of organization of the animal body.

• FIGURE 1.2 The study of physiology integrates
knowledge at all levels of organization. To
understand the physiology of fish, physiologists
consider (a) evolutionary biology, (b) the laws of
chemistry and physics, and (d) ecological
relations—as well as (c) body function at all levels
of organization. All elements shown are for fish in
a single genus, Oncorhynchus, the Pacific salmonid
fish. In (c) the drawing in “Systems physiology” is a
cross section of the body; the salmon in
“Morphology” is a chinook salmon. (Graph in a—
which pertains to populations of chum salmon—
after Hendry et al. 2004; cross section, salmon,
and biomechanics illustration in c after Videler
1993; graph in d—which pertains to sockeye
salmon—after Crossin et al. 2004
FIGURE 1.3 The mechanism of light production by fireflies
(Photinus) (a) The chemistry of light production. (b,c) In
the light cells—the cells that compose the light organ—
the luciferin reactions are spatially separated from
mitochondria. When a light cell is not flashing (b), the
mitochondria intercept O2. However, when a cell is
flashing (c), O2 gets through to the luciferin reactions.
Understanding of firefly flashing is a work in progress;
thus, parts of this scenario are hypothetical. AMP =
adenosine monophosphate; ATP = adenosine triphosphate
Natural selection is a key process of evolutionary origin

• For biologists, the answer lies in evolutionary origins. The

mechanisms of modern-day animals are products of evolution, and
thus the reasons for the existence of mechanisms lie in evolutionary
processes.
• The study of evolutionary origins is a central aim of modern
physiology because it promises to reveal the significance of
mechanisms. If we can learn why evolution produced a mechanism,
we will better understand what (if anything) animals gain by having
the mechanism.
• Natural selection is the increase in frequency of genes that produce phenotypes
that raise the likelihood that animals will survive and reproduce.

• During evolution by natural selection, such genes increase in frequency—over the

course of generations—because animals with the genes are differentially
successful relative to other members of their species.

• If we find that a physiological mechanism originated by natural selection within

the prevailing environment, we can conclude that the mechanism is an asset; that
is, it improves an animal’s chances of survival and reproduction within the
environment the animal occupies.
• The adaptation is a physiological mechanism or other trait that is a
product of evolution by natural selection. Adaptations are assets;
because of the way they originated, they aid the survival and
reproduction of animals living in the environment where they
evolved. When we speak of the adaptive significance of a trait
evolved by natural selection, we refer to the reason why the trait is an
asset: that is, the reason why natural selection favored the evolution
of the trait.
Mechanism and adaptive significance are distinct concepts that
do not imply each other

• The tinkering aspect of evolution is a key reason why mechanism and adaptive
significance do not imply each other.

• If you know the mechanism of a process, you do not necessarily know anything
about its adaptive significance. If you know the adaptive significance, you do not
necessarily know anything about the mechanism. Thus, to understand both
mechanism and adaptive significance, you must study both.

• Consider, for instance, the eyes of two groups of active aquatic animals: the
cephalopod molluscs (squids and octopuses) and the fish. Both groups have
evolved sophisticated eyes that permit lifestyles based on excellent vision.
However, these eyes are built on very different retinal designs (Figure 1.5).
Our viewpoint mechanistic, evolutionary, comparative,
environmental, and integrative

• In other words, we stress:

• The mechanisms by which animals perform their life-sustaining functions
• The evolution and adaptive significance of physiological traits
• The ways in which diverse phylogenetic groups of animals both resemble each
other and differ
• The ways in which physiology and ecology interact, in the present and during
evolutionary time
• The importance of all levels of organization—from genes to proteins, and
tissues to organs—for the full understanding of physiological systems