Psych 110 Chapter 12 Ingestive Behavior

The process by which the body's substances and characteristics (such as temperature and glucose level) are maintained at their optimal level

Eating or drinking

A variable that is controlled by a regulatory mechanism, for example, temperuature in a heating system; aka the characteristic to be regulated

The optimal value of the system variable in a regulatory mechanism;

One that maintains the constancy of some internal characteristic of the organism in the face of external variability -- for example, keeping body temperature constant despite changes in the ambient temperature. A regulatory mechanism contains four essential features: the system variable, a set point, a detector, and a correctional mechanism.

In a regulatory process, a mechanism that signals when the system variable deviates from its set point

In a regulatory process, the mechanism that is capable of changing the value of the system variable

A process whereby the effect produced by an action swerves to diminish or terminate that action; a characteristic of regulatory system

A brain mechanism that causes cessation of hunger or thirst, produced by adequate and available supplies of nutrients or water

One compartment of intracellular fluid and three compartments of extracellular fluid which includes the intravascular fluid, interstitial fluid, and the cerebrospinal fluid

The fluid contained within cells

All body fluids outside cells: interstitial fluid, blood plasma, and cerebrospinal fluid

The fluid found within the blood vessels

The fluid that bathes the cells, filling the space between the cells of the body (the "interstices")

Equal in osmotic pressure to the contents of a cell. A cell places in an isotonic solution neither gains nor loses water