First-year courses · Health sciences

Anatomy and physiology: body systems overview

Anatomy and physiology flashcards for health sciences: homeostasis, tissues, bones, muscle, nerves, hormones, heart, lungs, digestion and kidneys.

41 cards6 topicsAbout 15 minutes a roundTypical first-year Human Anatomy and Physiology for nursing and health sciences

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About this deck

This deck surveys the body systems covered in a first-year anatomy and physiology course for nursing, kinesiology and other health sciences programs. It starts with homeostasis and feedback, then covers the four tissue types, the skeletal and muscular systems, the nervous and endocrine systems, the heart and blood vessels, the lungs, digestion and the kidneys.

You should know basic high school biology, especially cell structure, and a little chemistry such as ions and pH. Anatomy is about structure and physiology is about function, and the most useful habit you can build is to link the two: ask how the shape or makeup of a part lets it do its job. Thin alveolar walls, for example, exist because gases must diffuse quickly.

Study one system at a time and draw it. Sketch the path of blood through the heart, label a nephron, or draw a reflex arc with arrows. Then explain a homeostatic loop out loud, naming the stimulus, receptor, control centre, effector and response. Return to earlier systems regularly, because exams often ask how systems work together, such as how the kidneys and heart both affect blood pressure.

Common mistakes: assuming arteries always carry oxygen-rich blood (the pulmonary arteries carry oxygen-poor blood), mixing up the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions, and thinking positive feedback is the body's normal way of keeping balance. Most control relies on negative feedback; positive feedback drives a process to completion, as in childbirth. These cards support study and do not replace clinical training.

Before you start: Grade 12 biology recommended; Grade 11 chemistry helpful.

All 41 cards

Cover the definitions with a sheet of paper and test yourself, or use the study modes above.

Organization and homeostasis

Homeostasis: The maintenance of relatively stable internal conditions, such as temperature and blood glucose, despite outside changes.Example: Body temperature stays near 37 degrees Celsius on a cold Winnipeg day.
Negative feedback: Control loop in which a change triggers responses that reverse it, bringing a variable back toward its set point.Example: Sweating when body temperature rises.
Positive feedback: Control loop in which a change triggers responses that amplify it until an end point is reached.Example: Oxytocin strengthening uterine contractions during childbirth.
Anatomical position: Standard reference posture: standing upright, facing forward, feet together, arms at the sides with palms facing forward.Example: Directional terms like lateral and medial assume this posture.
Sagittal plane: Vertical plane dividing the body into left and right parts.Example: A midsagittal cut divides it into equal halves.

Tissues

Epithelial tissue: Tissue of tightly packed cells that covers body surfaces, lines cavities and forms glands.Example: The lining of the small intestine and the outer layer of skin.
Connective tissue: Tissue of cells scattered in an extracellular matrix that supports, binds and protects other tissues.Example: Bone, cartilage, tendons, fat and blood.
Muscle tissue: Tissue specialized to contract; the three types are skeletal, cardiac and smooth.Example: Smooth type lines the walls of blood vessels and the gut.
Nervous tissue: Tissue made of neurons and supporting glial cells that generates and conducts electrical signals.Example: Found in the brain, spinal cord and nerves.

Skeletal and muscular

Osteoblasts and osteoclasts: Bone-building cells that lay down new matrix, and bone-resorbing cells that break matrix down; their balance remodels bone.Example: Weight-bearing exercise shifts the balance toward building.
Axial skeleton: The bones of the body's central axis: skull, vertebral column, ribs and sternum.Example: Contrasted with the limbs and girdles of the appendicular skeleton.
Synovial joint: Freely movable joint with a fluid-filled cavity, articular cartilage and a surrounding capsule.Example: The knee, shoulder and hip.
Sarcomere: The basic contractile unit of a skeletal muscle fibre, running between two Z discs.Example: It shortens as thin filaments slide toward its centre.
Sliding filament model: Explanation of contraction in which myosin heads pull actin filaments inward, shortening the sarcomere without the filaments themselves shortening.Example: Requires calcium and ATP.
Motor unit: One motor neuron plus all the skeletal muscle fibres it controls.Example: Eye muscles have small ones for fine control; thigh muscles have large ones.

Nervous and endocrine

Central nervous system: The brain and spinal cord, which integrate information and coordinate responses.Example: Contrasted with the peripheral nerves that branch throughout the body.
Sympathetic division: Part of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for action in stress, the 'fight or flight' response.Example: Raises heart rate and dilates pupils before an exam presentation.
Parasympathetic division: Part of the autonomic nervous system that promotes rest and digestion and conserves energy.Example: Slows heart rate and boosts digestion after a meal.
Reflex arc: The pathway of an automatic response: receptor, sensory neuron, integration centre, motor neuron and effector.Example: Pulling a hand away from a hot stove before feeling pain.
Hormone: Chemical messenger secreted into the blood by an endocrine gland that acts on target cells with matching receptors.Example: Thyroxine, insulin and cortisol.
Hypothalamus: Brain region that links the nervous and endocrine systems, controlling the pituitary gland and regulating temperature, hunger and thirst.Example: It releases hormones that tell the pituitary what to secrete.
Insulin: Pancreatic hormone that lowers blood glucose by helping cells take it up and promoting storage as glycogen.Example: Discovered and developed at the University of Toronto in 1921 and 1922.
Glucagon: Pancreatic hormone that raises blood glucose by prompting the liver to break down glycogen and release glucose.Example: Released between meals when blood sugar drops.
Cortisol: Steroid hormone from the adrenal cortex that raises blood glucose and helps the body respond to long-term stress.Example: Levels are normally highest in the morning.

Cardiovascular and respiratory

Pulmonary and systemic circuits: The two loops of blood flow: right heart to lungs and back, and left heart to the rest of the body and back.Example: The left ventricle wall is thicker because it pumps to the whole body.
Sinoatrial node: Group of specialized cells in the right atrium that sets the heart's rhythm as its natural pacemaker.Example: Generates about 60 to 100 impulses per minute at rest.
Cardiac output: Volume of blood each ventricle pumps per minute, equal to heart rate times stroke volume.Example: 70 beats per minute times 70 mL per beat is about 4.9 L per minute.
Blood pressure: Force of blood against vessel walls, reported as systolic over diastolic in millimetres of mercury.Example: About 120/80 mmHg in many healthy adults.
Arteries and veins: Vessels carrying blood away from the heart, and vessels returning blood to it; veins have thinner walls and valves.Example: Pulmonary arteries carry oxygen-poor blood to the lungs.
Capillary: Microscopic vessel with walls one cell thick where gases, nutrients and wastes are exchanged with tissues.Example: Oxygen leaves the blood here to reach muscle cells.
Alveoli: Tiny air sacs in the lungs with very thin walls where oxygen diffuses into blood and carbon dioxide diffuses out.Example: Their huge combined surface area speeds gas exchange.
Inspiration: Breathing in: the diaphragm and external intercostals contract, chest volume rises, pressure falls and air flows into the lungs.Example: Explained by Boyle's law: pressure falls as volume increases.
Hemoglobin: Iron-containing protein in red blood cells that binds and carries most of the oxygen in blood.Example: Low levels are a feature of anemia.

Digestive and renal

Peristalsis: Waves of smooth muscle contraction that push food along the digestive tract.Example: Moves a swallowed bite down the esophagus even when lying down.
Chemical digestion: Breaking food molecules into smaller units using enzymes.Example: Salivary amylase starts breaking down starch in the mouth.
Small intestine villi: Finger-like projections of the intestinal lining that greatly increase surface area for nutrient absorption.Example: Damaged in untreated celiac disease.
Bile: Fluid made by the liver and stored in the gallbladder that emulsifies fats in the small intestine.Example: Helps lipase digest fats from a meal.
Nephron: The functional unit of the kidney, made of a glomerulus and a tubule, which filters blood and forms urine.Example: Each kidney has about a million of them.
Glomerular filtration: First step of urine formation, in which blood pressure pushes water and small solutes out of glomerular capillaries into the capsule.Example: Large proteins and blood cells normally stay in the blood.
Antidiuretic hormone (ADH): Hormone made by the hypothalamus and released from the posterior pituitary that makes kidney collecting ducts more permeable to water, so more water is reabsorbed and urine is concentrated.Example: Levels rise when you are dehydrated.
Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system: Hormone pathway, triggered by low blood pressure or volume, that constricts vessels and increases sodium and water retention by the kidneys.Example: Some blood pressure medications block parts of it.