PSYC 342 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Catabolism, Sex Steroid, Thalamus
Document Summary
There are a lot of parallels between the endocrine and the nervous system. Both regulate physiological activities to maintain homeostasis. Homeostasis: not a xed state, but a dynamics equilibrium embedded in the notion of adaptation to the environment. The health of an organism depends on its capacity to maintain homeostasis, and unhealthy responses occur when an organism is falling off this equilibrium. Both the endocrine and the nervous system are important in maintaining homeostasis. Endocrine system: system of glands that transmit hormones (main effector of the endocrine system) through the blood stream. Nervous system: transmits signals along neurons via neurotransmitters. Fast electrical action potentials that create short-acting changes to the body. Note: electrical signals are more focal and act faster than chemical signals (neurotransmitters, for example, get degraded very fast at the level of the synapse) In contrast to the nervous system which is very well boxed , the endocrine system is comprised of glands located all over the body.