Physiology plays a leading role in understanding the vital activity patterns of animals and humans. Normal physiology as a part of general physiology studies the vital activity of a healthy person and their adaptation to extreme influences.
In recent years, physiology has increasingly delved into the study of the molecular and genetic basis of bodily functions. This is an important trend in its development. At the same time, physiology textbooks are now paying less attention to the functions of the entire body in its close interactions with the external environment.
This textbook not only focuses on studying the basics of vital activity and the function of certain organs, but mainly at understanding the systemic mechanisms of the entire organism's functioning in its intrinsic links to the external environment.
The basis of the systemic organization of living organisms' functions, and in particular of humans, is the theory of functional systems proposed by P.K. Anokhin. From the point of the theory of functional systems, the whole organism is determined by the aggregate activity of a multitude of cohesively collaborating functional systems of the metabolic, homeostatic, behavioral, and mental levels of organization.
The authors of the textbook are leading professors from the Department of Normal Physiology at the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.
The textbook reflects long-term experience in teaching a course of normal physiology based on a theory of functional systems, and uses significant experience in the systemic unification of the course of normal physiology.
This textbook differs significantly from existing domestic and foreign textbooks on physiology due to its structure.
Along with the description of general physiological properties of certain organs, the systemic mechanisms of the leading physiological functions are discussed in the textbook. Several chapters provide information about the systemic mechanisms of behavior, as well as mental and labor activity.
This edition is based on the textbook "Normal Physiology" (Moscow, 2004), which did not fully describe the latest information on the physiology of certain functions. This edition includes current information that characterizes the activity of the heart, blood circulation, physiology of the blood, digestion, and excretion. According to the current views on the mechanisms of humoral regulation of physiological functions, the presentation of the information in this section of the textbook has been largely revised.
The interaction of biologically active substances with different types of target cell receptors is discussed in more detail. The structure of the section discussing the special physiology of endocrine function has been changed.
The chapter "Basic Principles of Vital Activity" is complemented by a description of how living beings fit into the space-time continuum and an advanced reflection of reality as a universal property of living matter.
The paragraphs "General Physiology of the Central Nervous System" and "Autonomic Nervous System" discuss current approaches to brain and spinal cord examination on both animal models and in clinical practice. Diagrams of the main types of autonomic nervous reflexes are given.
In the paragraph "Physiology of the Heart", the association between the potential actions of cardiomyocytes and electrocardiographic waves is shown. a detailed description of the cardiac cycle is given. The activity of the valvular heart apparatus is related to phonocardiographic heart sounds. The correlation between electrocardiographic waves and heart sounds is described. The patterns of neurohumoral regulation of cardiac activity are explained. The relationship between cardiac blood volume and pressure is analyzed. The differences in right and left heart activity are described. The features of myocardial metabolism are shown.
The terms "shear stress" and "distensibility" that are currently used to describe vascular hemodynamics are introduced in the paragraph "Hemodynamics of the Vascular Bed". The factors that consistently ensure blood flow in the arterial and venous sections of the vascular bed, are presented in the form of a general diagram.
Current data on the role of molecular mechanisms in hydrochloric acid secretion and absorption are added in the section called "Digestion."
The neurohumoral regulation of urine formation and systemic mechanisms of urination are discussed in detail in the paragraph called "Excretion." The description of perspiration, the processes of excretion through the lungs and digestive tract are given.
The paragraph "Metabolism and Energy" provides data on the participation of the main biologically active substances in the regulation of metabolic processes.
In the paragraph "Thermoregulation," information about the health-improving role of heat and cold procedures has been added. The subjective and paradoxical features of thermal characteristics are described.
Original diagrams of the retina's cellular organization and levels of visual information processing in the brain, developed on current data, as well as diagrams of both the nociceptive and antinociceptive systems and neurochemical supply of their activity are presented in the chapter "Analyzers" and in the paragraph "Pain." The section describes the mechanism, on which the phenomenon of pain relief is based.
The chapter "Motor functions" provides an analysis of the main characteristics of afferent fibers coming from proprioceptive receptors, and their participation in the dynamic and static components of movement. Fatigable and fatigue-resistant motor units are described. Data on the role of the cerebellum's cortical-nuclear zones in the formation of movement, and original diagrams of the cerebellum's cellular structure, as well as its interactions are also presented. New data about the localization of motor neurons in the medial and lateral columns of the spinal cord that innervate the muscles of the proximal and distal extremities are outlined.