The human body is in constant interaction with the environment. The processes inside it are in the same interaction. The regulation of all processes in the body, the functioning of cells, tissues and organs is controlled by the nervous and humoral regulatory mechanisms.
Why does a person need these mechanisms?
Before you understand how the nervous and humoral regulation interact with each other, you need to understand why people need them at all. Can't the body cope without them?
A person is in constant interaction with changing environmental factors. And for normal life, he needs to adapt to them. For example, when the air temperature decreases, the vessels on the periphery are narrowed to reduce heat transfer through the skin. As a result, overcooling of the body is prevented, a balance is established between production and heat loss.
Or, for example, when eating and irritating taste buds in the tongue, salivation increases and gastric juice is produced. Due to this, it is possible to digest food, which in turn is necessary to provide internal organs with nutrients. And by the same principle, the function of all internal organs is regulated. Therefore, nervous and humoral regulation are extremely important for the human body.
Features of nervous regulation
To understand how nervous and humoral regulation interact with each other, you need to know the main features of each of them.
Nervous regulation is carried out due to the organs of the nervous system: the brain and spinal cord, peripheral nerves. This mechanism is carried out reflexively:
- There is irritation of the end of the long process (axon) of the nerve cell - the receptor.
- Further, excitation along a sensitive axon goes to the central nervous system (brain or spinal cord).
- After processing in the central nervous system, the impulse reaches the working organ, which carries out its function, along the motor nerve fiber.
This mechanism is called the reflex, and the chain along which the impulse passes is called the reflex arc. The implementation of reflex activity is not controlled by consciousness. All reflexes can be divided into unconditioned, or innate, and conditioned, that is, developed during life.
Features of humoral regulation
You correctly describe the effect of nervous and humoral regulation, knowing the features of the latter.
Humoral regulation is carried out by means of body fluids (blood, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph, etc.) with the help of special chemicals. These substances can either come from the external environment (vitamins) or be produced in the body itself (hormones). It is characteristic that each hormone regulates the process strictly assigned to it and interacts only with a specific type of receptor. The organs whose function the hormone regulates are called "target organs."
The main differences between the two regulatory mechanisms
But you will more fully characterize the effect of nervous and humoral regulation, only highlighting a number of differences between these two mechanisms:
- First, the nervous system spreads its momentum through specific nerves to a specific organ. It is on the functioning of this body that it has an effect. While the effect of humoral regulation is generalized, hormones are distributed throughout the body.
- Secondly, regulation through the nervous system is included in the work faster than through hormones, but hormonal, in turn, lasts longer.
In addition, there are differences in the diagnosis of the state of these mechanisms. In some situations, in order to understand how nervous and humoral regulation interact, a diagnosis is made of the functioning of each of these systems. It is characteristic that the diagnosis of the state of nervous regulation, carried out using electroencephalography (EEG), is more common than a blood test to determine the level of hormones.
This is due to the fact that the EEG is absolutely safe and painless, and the patient’s emotions do not affect the result. But in a blood test, many patients have a fear of an injection, which causes an increase in the concentration of stress hormones in the blood and, as a result, distorts the result.
Nervous and humoral regulation: table
Consider clearly the main differences.
| Nervous regulation | Humoral regulation |
| Regulates the function of organs through the central nervous system | Regulates the function of organs through hormones, vitamins, oxygen and carbon dioxide and other chemicals |
| Quickly responds to environmental changes | Slowly reacts to environmental changes |
| Her action is passing fast | Valid for a long time |
| The signal is transmitted through a nerve impulse | The signal is transmitted through the hormone |
| Both chemical signal transmission (through synapses, that is, connections between neurons) and electrical (along nerve fibers) are characteristic | Only chemical signal transmission (through body fluids) |
| As a rule, the answer is clearly addressed to a specific authority | A generalized response is characteristic (through the whole body) |
| Nerve signal propagates through a reflex arc | Hormone is distributed through the blood |
This table shows the main differences when comparing nervous and humoral regulation, which should simplify the understanding of these two processes.
Interaction example
Despite the wide range of differences between the two mechanisms described, they do not work in isolation from each other. The nervous mechanism constantly affects the humoral, and vice versa. To better understand how nervous and humoral regulation interact, we give an example.
There are two structures in the brain: the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. Each of them consists of nerve cells and at the same time produces a number of hormones. There is a direct connection between the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus, with the help of nerve impulses, and neurohormones, changes the function of the pituitary gland, forcing it to synthesize biologically active substances. And the pituitary gland, in turn, by the feedback mechanism changes the function of the hypothalamus. The information that the pituitary gland synthesized the necessary hormones enters the hypothalamus and inhibits its function.
We hope this example helped to better understand how nervous and humoral regulation interact, because these two mechanisms are the basis of human life.