Human Physiology Essentials: 250 Cards on Regulation
250 cards on how each system is regulated, not where it sits.
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| 表 | 裏 |
|---|---|
| Equilibrium potential | Definition: The membrane voltage at which the electrical force on an ion exactly balances its concentration gradient, so there is no net movement. Why it matters: Each ion has its own value, so a membrane's voltage sits between them, pulled toward whichever ion it is most permeable to. |
| States of the voltage-gated sodium channel | Definition: Closed and available, open, and inactivated, with recovery from inactivation requiring the membrane to repolarize first. Why it matters: Inactivation is a separate state from being closed, which is what makes the refractory periods possible. |
| Graded potential | Definition: A local voltage change whose size varies with stimulus strength and which decays with distance. Often confused with: The all-or-none response it may trigger. Graded potentials can add together, which an all-or-none response cannot. |
| Spatial summation | Definition: Addition of inputs arriving at different locations at the same time. Why it matters: It lets a cell weigh many simultaneous sources, so its output reports a combination rather than any single input. |
| Autonomic tone | Definition: A continuous baseline level of autonomic activity, so a target can be adjusted in either direction from an intermediate state. Why it matters: Without tone a system could only be switched on, so tone is what makes graded bidirectional control possible. |
| Cross-bridge cycle | Definition: Attachment of the myosin head to actin, the power stroke, detachment, and re-cocking of the head. Why it matters: The cycle repeats many times per contraction, so shortening comes from repeated small steps rather than one large movement. |
| Length-tension relationship | Definition: Active force is greatest at the length giving optimal overlap between thick and thin filaments, and falls when the muscle is shorter or longer. Why it matters: Too much overlap causes interference and too little leaves few cross-bridges, so the curve has a peak rather than a plateau. |
| Smooth muscle contraction mechanism | Definition: Calcium binds calmodulin, which activates a kinase that phosphorylates the myosin light chain, allowing cross-bridge cycling. Often confused with: Skeletal muscle, where regulation is on the thin filament. Here it is on the thick filament and involves an enzyme step. |
| Muscle energy sources during activity | Definition: Stored ATP first, then creatine phosphate, then anaerobic glycolysis, then oxidative metabolism as activity continues. Why it matters: The order follows how quickly each can supply ATP rather than how much it can supply in total. |
| Pacemaker potential | Definition: A slow spontaneous drift toward threshold in nodal cells, driven by an inward current that activates on repolarization together with falling potassium conductance. Why it matters: These cells have no stable resting voltage, which is why the heart beats without any external signal. |
| Phases of the cardiac cycle | Definition: Isovolumetric contraction, ejection, isovolumetric relaxation, and filling. Why it matters: During the two isovolumetric phases both valves are shut, so pressure changes with no change in volume. |
| Ejection fraction | Definition: The fraction of end-diastolic volume ejected in one beat. Why it matters: Being a ratio, it reports pump efficiency rather than output, so it can be preserved while output falls. |
| Relationship between flow, pressure and resistance | Definition: Flow equals the pressure difference divided by resistance. Why it matters: It is the pressure difference across a circuit that drives flow, not the absolute pressure at either end. |
| Local metabolic control of blood flow | Definition: Accumulating metabolites and falling oxygen dilate local arterioles, raising flow where activity has risen. Why it matters: The tissue adjusts its own supply without any signal from outside, which is why active muscle receives more flow than the nervous system alone would deliver. |
| Intrapleural pressure | Definition: The pressure in the thin fluid layer between the lung and chest wall, kept below atmospheric by their opposing recoil. Why it matters: The negative value is what holds the lung expanded against its own elastic recoil, so losing it allows the lung to collapse. |
| Partial pressure as the driving force | Definition: Gases diffuse down their own partial pressure gradients, independently of the other gases present. Why it matters: It is partial pressure rather than concentration that drives movement, which is why the amount dissolved also depends on solubility. |
| Why carbon dioxide is the main respiratory stimulus | Definition: Ventilation responds steeply to small rises in carbon dioxide and only weakly to falling oxygen until it becomes low. Why it matters: The oxygen curve is flat over its usual range, so oxygen contributes little to minute-to-minute control. |
| Haematocrit | Definition: The fraction of blood volume occupied by red cells. Why it matters: It is a major determinant of blood viscosity, so a rise increases resistance and the work the heart must do. |
| Vascular response to injury | Definition: Immediate constriction of the damaged vessel, reducing flow through the injured segment. Why it matters: It buys time for the slower steps, so haemostasis begins mechanically before any clotting occurs. |
| The three basic renal processes | Definition: Filtration into the tubule, reabsorption back into blood, and secretion from blood into the tubule. Why it matters: What appears in urine is filtered plus secreted minus reabsorbed, so a substance can be excreted without ever being filtered. |
| Transport maximum | Definition: The upper limit on how fast a carrier-mediated process can move a substance, set by the number of transporters. Why it matters: Below it essentially all of the substance is recovered, and above it the excess appears in urine, so the appearance is abrupt rather than gradual. |
| Osmoreceptors and thirst | Definition: Hypothalamic cells sensing plasma osmolarity, driving both thirst and release of antidiuretic hormone. Why it matters: The same signal drives intake and retention, so the two arms of water balance are triggered together. |
| Buffering in body fluids | Definition: Weak acid and conjugate base pairs that take up or release hydrogen ions, chiefly the bicarbonate system in extracellular fluid, with proteins and phosphate acting inside cells. Why it matters: Buffering is immediate but conserves nothing, so it limits the change while excretion does the correcting. |
| Hormone transport in blood | Definition: Water-soluble hormones travel dissolved, while lipid-soluble ones travel bound to carrier proteins. Why it matters: Only the unbound fraction is active, so a change in carrier protein alters total measured hormone without altering activity. |
| Steps of thyroid hormone synthesis | Definition: Iodide trapping, oxidation and attachment to tyrosine residues on thyroglobulin, coupling of those residues, then storage and release. Why it matters: The hormone is stored extracellularly within the follicle, which is why the gland holds a supply lasting weeks. |
| Growth hormone actions | Definition: Direct effects mobilizing fat and opposing insulin, and indirect growth-promoting effects mediated by insulin-like growth factor from the liver. Why it matters: The direct and indirect actions pull glucose handling in opposite directions, which is why its metabolic effect is not simply anabolic. |
| Layers of the gut wall | Definition: Mucosa, submucosa, muscularis with circular and longitudinal layers, and an outer serosa. Why it matters: The two muscle layers act at right angles, which is what allows both propulsion and mixing. |
| Intrinsic factor | Definition: A protein from parietal cells binding vitamin B12 and enabling its absorption in the terminal ileum. Why it matters: The absorption site is far from where the factor is made, so loss of gastric function impairs an ileal process. |
| Components of a control system | Definition: A sensor, an integrating centre with a set point, and an effector, connected in a loop. Why it matters: Losing any one component breaks regulation, so identifying which is missing explains the pattern of failure. |
| Why physiological values are given as ranges | Definition: Measured values vary with age, sex, posture, activity, time of day and measurement method, and differ between reference sources. Why it matters: A single figure quoted without its conditions is not comparable to one measured differently, so the conditions matter as much as the number. |
このデッキについて
Physiology is not a longer list of structures. It is a set of control loops, and almost every one has the same shape: something is sensed, compared against a set point, and corrected by an effector that cannot quite finish the job. Once you can see that shape, the baroreceptor reflex, tubuloglomerular feedback, thyroid feedback and temperature regulation stop being four topics and become one idea in four places. So these 250 cards are built on mechanism rather than on naming. All 250 open with a definition and 242 add why it matters, which here almost always means the consequence that makes the mechanism worth knowing: that the ascending limb removes solute without water and is therefore the engine of the concentrating gradient, that surfactant equalizes rather than simply reduces surface tension, that a catalyst-like permissive hormone changes what another hormone can do without doing it itself. The weighting is 42 cards on the cardiovascular system, 38 on the kidney and fluid balance, 32 on respiration, 30 each on cell and nerve function and on the endocrine system, 26 on the gut, 20 on muscle, 18 on blood and haemostasis, and 14 on whole-body regulation. There are no reference ranges in it, and that is deliberate: values differ by source, by method and by the person measured, and a number quoted without its conditions invites a comparison it cannot support. Structure lives in the Human Anatomy Essentials deck and drug effects in the Pharmacology Drug Classes deck, so the three sit alongside one another. Cards are tagged by system and by sub-topic, so you can drill just the cardiac cycle, just tubular transport, or just the endocrine axes.
よくある質問
- How does it differ from the Human Anatomy Essentials deck?
- Anatomy is where a structure is and what it borders. This deck is what the structure does and how that activity is controlled. They share no cards, and they answer different questions about the same body: anatomy tells you the loop of Henle has a descending and an ascending limb, this deck tells you why one is permeable to water and the other is not.
- Why are there no reference ranges or normal values?
- Because they vary by source, by measurement method, by age and posture, and by the individual, and a value read without those conditions invites a comparison it cannot support. Every card here teaches the relationship instead: what raises a variable, what lowers it, and what the body does about it. The final card says this explicitly.
- What is on each card?
- A concept on the front. On the back, a definition on all 250 and on 242 the consequence that makes it worth knowing, most often the reason the mechanism is built the way it is. Each line is labeled, so the back reads as a short structured answer rather than a paragraph.
- Which systems get the most cards?
- Cardiovascular 42, renal and fluid balance 38, respiratory 32, cell and nerve function 30, endocrine 30, gastrointestinal 26, muscle 20, blood and haemostasis 18, and whole-body regulation 14. The weighting follows where the control loops are densest rather than where the anatomy is largest.
- How is it organized for studying one system at a time?
- Every card carries a system tag and a finer sub-topic tag, across cell and nerve, muscle, cardiovascular, respiratory, blood, renal, endocrine, gastrointestinal and integrated regulation. Filter by a tag to drill one system, or by the finer tag for a single block such as cardiac electrical activity, tubular transport or haemostasis.
- Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?
- Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and spends no AI credits, so the free plan imports every card. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.
- Will importing it twice create duplicates?
- No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.
- Can I edit the cards after importing?
- Yes. Once imported they are your cards: edit either side, delete the ones you already know cold, retag them, or move them into another deck.
Educational material about normal physiological function, not clinical guidance. Compiled 2026-08-22.