Human Temperature Regulation
Your body maintains a consistent temperature of approximately 98.6°F through a sophisticated negative feedback system. When you get too hot, your body activates cooling mechanisms: you start sweating (evaporative cooling) and blood vessels near your skin dilate (vasodilation), bringing warm blood to the surface to release heat.
Conversely, when you're cold, your body initiates warming responses. You get goosebumps (which would raise fur in hairier animals) and your blood vessels constrict (vasoconstriction), keeping warm blood deeper inside your body to preserve heat around vital organs.
These mechanisms keep you within a normal range around your body's set point. This range represents the boundaries where your body can function properly, with optimal conditions at the center. Your feedback systems constantly work to return you to this ideal state whenever you deviate.
Study Tip: Think of negative feedback like a thermostat that brings temperature back to normal, while positive feedback is like an avalanche that grows bigger once started. Birth contractions intensify in a positive feedback loop until the baby is delivered, then quickly stop.