What is Anatomy & Physiology?

Hello and welcome. My name is Bruce. And along with my colleague, Jason, I'm gonna be your guide for this course, anatomy and physiology. Now, whether you're somebody who's just interested in science or maybe you're pursuing a career in the medical or health and wellness fields, or maybe you just want to learn more about how your body works. It's gonna be our goal to help you succeed in your class with that in mind. Let's get started. You've probably ought to realize that you're taking one class that has two names, anatomy and physiology. The first thing that we want to do is figure out what the difference between those two fields are. And there's a few reasons for that. First off, it might be a test question. But also as you go through this class, there's gonna be times when you're asked to look at the anatomy of something or answer a question about the physiology of something and when that happens, you're gonna wanna know what people are talking about. So, anatomy and physiology, this course together is gonna be the study of the body's structure and function, but we can separate those ideas out specifically anatomy is gonna be the study of the body's structure. If you're naming things in the body, talking about the lumps and the bumps of the body, what things are made of figuring out where things are in the body, you are doing anatomy. Now, in contrast physiology is the study of the body's function. If you're talking about how things in the body work, how the body does the jobs, it does, how the body responds to different things you're doing physiology. Now, to try to make this distinction a little bit more clear, we have two diagrams here that relate to the heart. Now, don't worry, you don't need to know anything about the heart at this point in the course. And when you get to the heart, you'll be able to fill these two diagrams out very easily on your own. So first, let's look on the left, we have this picture of the heart, it's cut away. So you can see the internal chambers, you can see the blood vessels connecting to it. You can see the different valves are pulled out. So you can see their shape and they're all labeled. I don't care about the labels right now. So I'm not gonna read them. The point is when I look at this, I see shape, I see structure. I see how things are connected that tells me that this is relating to the anatomy of the heart. What I don't see is how the heart works. Now, if I look over here on the right, I have this readout from electrocardiogram, sometimes called an EKG or an ECG. And I can see the different waves and they're labeled P QR Stu there's other labels on there. Again, I don't care about the labels right now. An electrocardiogram shows me a, a graph of voltage over time in the heart. So this is showing me something about what the heart does and how it does it, what the heart does and how it does. It is something about physiology. What this graph doesn't tell me is anything about its structure. OK. We're gonna practice this in examples and practice problems more below for now, remember anatomy structure physiology function with that. I just want to say I'm really excited to take this journey with you and I hope to see you in the next video.

Now, we're gonna take a look at this example, we're gonna read a bunch of statements and for each statement, if it seems to apply more to anatomy, we'll mark it with an, a more to physiology, we'll mark it with a P. So with that, let's take a look. First up, we have the hormone insulin is released when blood glucose levels increase. Take a second, anatomy or physiology. All right. Well, when I read that, I don't see anything about structure. What I do see is an action verb, right? Something's being released, it's being released in response to a change in the body, something's increasing how the body responds to change. That's definitely a function. So a function, I'm gonna mark it with P for physiology. Next, we have two major blood vessels enter the liver, the hepatic portal vein and the hepatic artery. Think anatomy or physiology. Well, we're talking about where blood vessels grow, what they connect to. That definitely sounds like structure. It doesn't tell me what they are doing. So if we're just talking about structure, that's gonna be a statement of anatomy. I'll mark it with an A. Next, we have electric charge and neurons is maintained through a gradient of ions across the cell membrane. All right, think about that one for a second. OK. We have electric charge being maintained across a gradient, right. When we're talking about things being maintained across a gradient or things changing across a gradient, that's how something is working. There isn't really much of anything in here about structure, it mentions a cell membrane, but it doesn't tell me anything about the structure of that cell membrane. So this is about how something works, what it does. That's a statement of physiology and a market with A P. Next, we have ligaments and tendons are largely composed of collagen fibers. Take a second to think about that one. All right. What something is made of how it is built. It's not telling me what it does. So how something is built is a statement of anatomy. I'm gonna mark it with an A next we have 206 named bones in the human body. Take a second to think about that. All right. Do you know what the bones do? No. Do you know how many there are? Does that tell you something about how the body is built? Yes. So that's gonna be a statement of anatomy or mark it with an a finally activation of the sympathetic nervous system will increase heart rate and elevate blood pressure one more time. Anatomy or physiology, right? Keywords here, activation, increasing heart rate, elevating blood pressure. This is all talking about the body doing something how it works. So, again, that's gonna be physiology. I'll mark it with A P. All right, we'll practice more of these going forward. But just always remember, anatomy, structure, physiology, function.

This example again, asks us to distinguish between anatomy and physiology, but you're gonna do it more in the context of scientific research. So, two biologists are studying the causes of acid reflux or heartburn, determine whether each biologist takes a more anatomical approach or a more physiological approach to their study. All right. First, it says Rita uses a probe to measure the change in ph of subject stomach acid before and after eating and compares that data to the amount of heartburn, the subject reports experiencing. All right. Take a second. Do you think that's more of an anatomical approach or more a physiological approach? All right. When I look at it, the keywords here, I see Rita is measuring the change in ph of a stomach acid. All right, if you are measuring the response to something how the acid in the stomach changes over time, that's how the stomach works. It doesn't say anything about the structure of the stomach there. So how the stomach works, how it functions, that's physiological. It sounds like Rita is taking a more physiological approach to her study. Next, we have Andre Andre uses MRI data to compare the shape of the stomach pyloric sphincter and esophagus. For 100 subjects who complain irregular heartburn and 100 subjects who do not experience heartburn. All right. Take a second or an an anatomical approach or more of a physiological approach. Well, when I see this, I see MRI data that's really pictures of things and he's looking at the shape of the stomach pyloric sphincter and esophagus again, you don't need to worry about what the pyloric sphincter is. Right now. We'll learn that later in the course right now. Just don't, they're looking at shape, right. Shape is structure. When we're talking about structure that tells me they're taking more of an anatomical approach. All right, with that, we have more practice problems below for you to practice this distinction. And I'll see you in the next video.

Weightlifting and other resistance exercise can lead to bone to become thicker and even restructured internally to increase strength. This is one reason resistance exercise is recommended to elderly people at risk of breaking bones. As stated, was the previous statement more related to anatomy or physiology?

• A. Anatomy.
• B. Physiology.
• C. Neither anatomy nor physiology.
• D. Equally both anatomy and physiology.

Which describes an activity that would most likely be performed by someone that considers themselves a physiologist?

• A. Perform a detailed dissection of a cadaver's calf muscles to identify the layers of muscle and connective tissue.
• B. Grow liver cells in cell culture to measure how quickly they metabolize alcohol in different conditions.
• C. Weigh the brains of many individuals to test for a correlation to body size.
• D. Map the ducts of different glands and mathematically analyze if the branching patterns are optimally connected. 

We've been talking about the difference between anatomy and physiology. But of course, they're often taught in the same class. And that's for a very good reason. Anatomy and physiology, we're gonna say are not completely independent and we can go further and say that they are closely closely linked. And that link comes from what we're gonna call the principle of complementarity. The principle of complementarity is a phrase that you might need to know for a test question. But it's much more likely you need to know the ideas behind it really, really well. So we'll break it down complementarity. When things complement each other, they go together, they support each other, they build off each other. We can start by talking about anatomy. Remember anatomy is a study of structure. So why are things structured the way they are well, structure exists in order to perform a function? Why is the heart built the way it is, the heart is built the way it is so that it can pump blood. Therefore, we can say to understand why an organ is built a certain way. You must understand what it does to fully understand the anatomy. You need to understand the physiology. So we can come over to physiology, physiology, the study of function. Why do things function? The way they do well function is determined by structure. Why does the heart pump blood, the way it does it pumps blood the way it does because of the very specific way it is built. So we can say to understand how an organ does its job. You must understand how it is built to fully understand the physiology. You need to understand the anatomy. You're gonna see this relationship over and over again, phrased slightly different ways. The structure function, relationship, structure determines function so on and so on. And this relation is gonna come up in chapter after chapter after chapter. And it's really important to keep it in mind. Sometimes it's easy to think of anatomy as just a list of facts. And then separately, you're gonna learn physiology. But if you learn these things together, if you understand that the anatomy that you're learning is there to do a job and the job works because of the anatomy, you're gonna have a much deeper understanding of everything. So like always we have an example and some practice problems below. Remember that, let's go learn something about the body.

Which example best describes the close relationship between anatomy and physiology?

• A. The kidneys will remove more water from the blood as blood volume increases.
• B. The size of the heart can vary as a function of sex, height, weight, age, and other factors.
• C. The study of anatomy & physiology spans many levels of organization from the molecular to the whole body.
• D. The structure of the heart valves causes the blood to flow in only one direction when the heart pumps.

Why is it important to have some knowledge of anatomy in order to study physiology?

• A. It is important because structures (anatomy) can change rapidly depending on the function (physiology) that must be performed.
• B. It is important because how something functions (physiology) is directly dependent on its structure (anatomy).
• C. It is important because understanding how something works (physiology) is more relevant to curing disease.
• D. It is important because physiology exists to develop the correct anatomy.