Many important advances in surgery and medicine have been based on the physiology of circulation, which was first studied in 1628. The measurement of blood pressure, for example, was introduced on a practicable basis late in the 19th century and has become an important part of medical diagnosis. The physiology of circulation is concerned with the origin of blood pressure in the force of the heartbeat and the regulation of heart rate, blood pressure, and the flow of blood.

Variations in heart rate that led Aristotle to consider the heart as the seat of the emotions (an idea later proven incorrect) were among the phenomena whose explanation revealed the existence of the autonomic nervous system. More important to the circulatory system than variation in heart rate, however, is the ability of the heart to adjust the strength of its beat to meet certain demands of the body.

The peripheral control of blood pressure and blood flow depends upon a maze of interacting control mechanisms, the most significant of which are in direct control of the diameter of small arterial branches that enlarge or dilate in response to chemical products formed during metabolism. Increased metabolic activity of tissues such as muscles or the intestine, therefore, automatically induces increased blood flow through the dilated vessels. This action, which could result in a fall in blood pressure, is offset by central-reflex controls that constrict arterial branches not dilated as a result of local chemical effects. Certain regions of the skin and the intestines serve as reservoirs for blood that may be diverted to muscles or the brain if necessary. Peripheral control may break down if excessive demands are made upon it in hot weather (heatstroke), during vigorous exercise after meals (muscle cramp), and after extensive loss of blood or tissue damage (shock) or extreme emotion with consequent activation of the autonomic nervous system (emotional shock). A remarkable adaptation occurs in air-breathing vertebrates—reptiles, birds, and mammals—which dive for food or protection. During a dive, the flow of blood to all parts of the body except the brain and the heart is reduced substantially. The energy for muscle contraction is provided by the anaerobic process of glycolysis because the oxygen in the blood goes to the brain and heart, which cannot function without a constant supply of oxygen.

Comparative studies have disclosed two major patterns in circulatory systems. Among vertebrates and a few invertebrates—notably annelid worms and cephalopod mollusks—the blood flows entirely in closed channels or vessels, never coming into direct contact with cells and tissues; blood pressure and the velocity of flow are high and relatively constant, and the volume of blood is small. In many invertebrates—especially arthropods and mollusks other than cephalopods—the blood flows for part of its course in large sinuses or lacunae and comes directly into contact with the tissues. Blood pressure and the velocity of flow are low and variable in these invertebrates, and the large volume of blood is comparable to the total volume of all body fluids in vertebrates.

Consideration of the blood as a transport system has centred especially on the transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The colour of blood changes as it passes through the lungs: venous blood is dark purple and arterial blood is bright red because of the properties of a blood pigment called hemoglobin. Knowledge of the complete structure of hemoglobin has enabled scientists to study fundamental questions of heredity at the molecular level. The development of blood banks and the techniques involved in blood transfusion depend on knowledge of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of blood. These properties include a remarkable diversity of hemoglobin, both among individuals and species and also within an individual during development. In many instances variations in protein composition better adapt a species to its circumstances.

Britannica Quiz

Biology Bonanza

Studies of membrane transport at the cellular level are an important part of general physiology. Although quantitative theories of diffusion and osmosis that developed around 1900 were applied to cell physiology, a number of phenomena (e.g., movement through membranes of certain ions and other compounds of biological importance) did not behave according to established physical principles. As a result of studies of osmotic and ionic regulation in freshwater animals, the concept of active transport was formulated. Crucial to the acceptance of this concept were studies with frog skin, which can transport sodium ions against chemical and electrical forces; the transport, specific for sodium ions, is dependent on a continuing input of metabolic energy. Efforts have been directed toward establishing a molecular mechanism that may involve an enzyme found in surface membranes of cells. This enzyme breaks down ATP and releases the energy in the molecule only if sodium and potassium ions are present.

Information transfer

The physiology of animals differs from that of plants in the rapid response of animals to stimuli. French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, responsible for the concept of the reflex that dominated neurophysiology for most of its history, thought a sensory impulse was “reflected” from the brain to produce a reaction in muscles. Later studies of the effects of ions on nerves suggested that a nerve must be surrounded by a membrane and that a nerve impulse results from a change in the ability of the membrane to allow passage of potassium ions. When it was shown that nerves are made up of thousands of tiny fibres, which are processes that extend from cells located in the brain or spinal cord, the nerve impulse hypothesis was applied to individual nerve fibres rather than to whole nerves. Electronic technology provided the techniques and giant nerve fibres of squids provided the experimental material that enabled two Nobel prize winners for physiology, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley, to extend this hypothesis into a theory of the excitation of nerve cells in which sodium ions and potassium ions play principal roles.

The reflex concept, however, was not dependent on understanding the molecular basis of excitation, conduction, and transmission. Early in the 20th century the role of interaction of nervous centres in controlling muscle contractions was established. The reflex now is conceived as a unit in which nerve impulses initiated in sensory neurons or nerve cells are conducted to a centre in the brain or spinal cord. In the centre, impulses initiated in motor neurons are conducted to muscles and induce a reflex response. Two processes can occur in the centre; one is associated with central excitatory states, the other with central inhibitory states. The net effect of any stimulus or group of stimuli, therefore, can be interpreted as an interaction of these opposing states in the centre.

After the demonstration that the effects of the vagus nerve in slowing the heart are mediated by a chemical substance, subsequently identified as acetylcholine, the concept of chemical transmission of nervous impulses was extended to the central nervous system. Typically, transmission of excitation from cell to cell is accomplished by the liberation of a chemical transmitter from a nerve ending.

The reflex concept gave rise to premature attempts to develop a psychology based on reflexes. These attempts (behaviourism) were advanced by Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov’s discovery of conditioned responses. Originally known as conditioned reflexes, these responses have been found in most animals with central nervous systems. More complex than simple reflexes, their mechanism has not yet been established with certainty.

The analysis of sensory functions also extends to the cellular level. Sense organs are diverse in structure and sensitivity to specific stimuli. It may be that the common molecular basis for the differences in sensitivity is a change in permeability of a special region of the membrane surrounding a sensory cell. This change in permeability could allow a nerve fibre to become excited and initiate a nerve impulse. Neurophysiology has borrowed from, and contributed to, the information theory used in communications engineering. The function of sense organs is to gather information both from the environment and the organism. The central nervous system integrates this information and translates it into a program of response involving the entire organism. In addition, the brain can store information previously received (memory) and has the ability to initiate actions without obvious external stimulation (spontaneity). Some aspects of memory and integrative function have been modelled in electronic computers; in fact the development of computers was closely connected with the development of ideas about the functions of the central nervous system.

The analytical interpretation of central nervous function remains, however, a complex and difficult field, even though recent progress has brought closer together the study of behaviour in terms of nerve function and behavioral models. Considerable effort has been directed to the localization of brain function. Although specific centres for reception of sensory information and integration of motor programs are known, the integrative functions that tie them together, as well as the functions of memory, are not so well established.