Negative feedback loops play an important role in regulating health in the human body. Also known as an inhibitory loop, a negative feedback loop allows the body to regulate itself.
The process starts when there is an increase in output from a body system, which results in higher levels of certain proteins or hormones. This stops (inhibits or reverses) future production by the system. Thus, the body reduces the amount of proteins or hormones it creates when their levels get too high.
Negative feedback systems work to maintain relatively constant levels of output.For example, negative feedback loops affect:
Imagine that the body is a factory making Product X, and imagine that making too much of Product X is expensive, wasteful, and harmful. This means that the body needs a way to slow down the factory when enough Product X has been made. It does this through a negative feedback loop.What that means is that the speed of production is sensitive to the amount of Product X. When it starts to build up, production slows.
It might help to think of the factory as a great, big assembly line that stocks shelves at the end. When the shelves get full, the assembly line has to slow down since there's nowhere to put the product. Too much product building up can cause damage.
However, if the shelves are empty, there's plenty of space on which to stock the product. The assembly line can speed up until the shelves are full again, with the goal of keeping the shelves filled at the right level all the time.
The opposite of this would be a positive feedback loop. In that case, the more Product X there is, the faster the plant will make more.
What Is a Positive Feedback Loop?
A positive feedback loop reacts to a stimulus by promoting or increasing it, instead of stopping or reversing it.
For example, if you have a wound, your body releases clotting factors to create more platelets (blood cells) that gather at the site to seal the wound. This is called platelet aggregation.
Other examples of a positive feedback loop include:
Childbirth
Ovulation
Coagulation (blood clotting)
Inflammation
Shock
Examples of Negative Feedback Loops
Several well-understood negative feedback loops control different functions in the body. Examples of this process include:
The hypothalamus is a gland in the brain that produces gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH).
The GnRH signals the pituitary gland in the brain to produce follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).
FSH triggers the ovaries to produce estrogen.
High levels of estrogen (as well as progesterone and testosterone, which are regulated through similar loops) inhibit the production of GnRH. This causes the pituitary to make less FSH, which causes ovaries to make less estrogen.
The male reproductive axis is set up in a similar manner as the female axis, with luteinizing hormone (LH), FSH, and testosterone in a negative feedback loop associated with fertility.
The lactic acid that maintains this pH is made by lactobacilli—part of the normal vagin*l flora. These bacteria grow faster and produce more acid at higher pH.
One of the hallmarks of bacterial vaginosis is a pH of above 5—which will trigger the normal flora to produce acid that prevents the infectious bacteria from thriving.
When the pH gets close to 4, the lactobacilli can slow down the production of lactic acid.
Negative Feedback Loops and Homeostasis
One keyword that is important in understanding negative feedback loops ishomeostasis, or the body's tendency toward stability.
Homeostasis is very important in the human body. Many systems have to self-regulate in order for the body to stay in optimal ranges for health.
Some systems that work through negative feedback to achieve homeostasis include:
Blood pressure
Body temperature
Blood sugar
When individuals have problems maintaining these systems, a negative feedback loop will likely be poorly managed.
For example, in diabetes, the pancreas does not respond properly to high blood sugar by producing more insulin. In type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes, in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin), this is because there are fewer cells available to make insulin. A person's immune system has damaged the insulin-producing cells.
Similarly, breathing regulates the body's oxygen and carbon dioxide levels—which are tightly controlled by the mechanisms in the brain that mediate respiration.
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By Elizabeth Boskey, PhD Elizabeth Boskey, PhD, MPH, CHES, is a social worker, adjunct lecturer, and expert writer in the field of sexually transmitted diseases.
A negative feedback loop occurs in biology when the product of a reaction leads to a decrease in that reaction. In this way, a negative feedback loop brings a system closer to a target of stability or homeostasis.
Another example of negative feedback is the regulation of the blood calcium level. The parathyroid glands secrete parathyroid hormone, which regulates the level of calcium in the blood. If calcium decreases, the parathyroid glands sense the decrease and secrete more parathyroid hormone.
In a negative feedback loop a variable falls out of it's normal range (stimulus). A receptor detects this change and sends a message to the control center. The control center sends messages to effectors that cause the variable to go in the opposite direction to achieve homeostasis.
A negative feedback loop is a procedure that uses criticism to change a process. This process is a loop because the output of feedback is input back into the process when the company makes changes. You can then receive more feedback on the new product or outcome and implement more changes, continuing the cycle.
Negative feedback loop: A negative feedback loop is one in which outputs slow down a process and preserve a stable state. Thermostat control systems function as negative feedback loops. If a heater pushes a temperature too high, the thermostat shuts it off and turns on a cooling unit to lower that temperature.
Negative feedback refers to a case where outputs from a system are subsequently fed back into it, minimizing or reducing the effect of subsequent iterations. In markets, negative feedback loops can thus reduce volatility, for example via contrarian investing or value investing.
Homeostasis is generally maintained by a negative feedback loop that includes a stimulus , sensor , control centre , and effector . Negative feedback serves to reduce an excessive response and to keep a variable within the normal range. Negative feedback loops control body temperature and the blood glucose level.
Negative feedback is a type of regulation in biological systems in which the end product of a process in turn reduces the stimulus of that same process. Feedback, in general, is a regulatory mechanism present in many biological reactions.
Negative feedback is a process that minimizes or reduces some initial effect, generally some disturbance causes some secondary effect that in turn minimizes the magnitude of the initial disturbance. This causes some initial change to grow smaller, keeping the system from moving out of its equilibrium state.
In negative feedback, the feedback energy (voltage or current), is out of phase with the input signal and thus opposes it. Negative feedback reduces gain of the amplifier. It also reduce distortion, noise and instability. This feedback increases bandwidth and improves input and output impedances.
Negative feedback reduces the overall gain of the system, with the degree of reduction being related to the open-loop gain. Negative feedback reduces distortion noise, sensitivity to external change, as well as improves the system bandwidth and input and output impedance.
Positive feedback loops enhance or amplify changes; this tends to move a system away from its equilibrium state and make it more unstable. Negative feedbacks tend to dampen or buffer changes; this tends to hold a system to some equilibrium state making it more stable.
Negative feedback is more common in the body than positive feedback because negative feedback loops seek to maintain homeostasis by negating any stimulus that changes the body's set points. An example of negative feedback is the regulation of body temperature at around 98.6 degrees F.
Again, negative feedback doesn't mean a negative outcome, as it can stabilize systems. Certain mechanisms in the human body—such as those that regulate temperature of blood glucose levels—are great examples of negative feedback loops.
The baroreflex provides a negative feedback loop for controlling blood pressure, such that heart rate falls when blood pressure rises, and vice-versa when blood pressure falls, thus modulating blood pressure fluctuations.
A negative feedback loop is a reaction that causes a decrease in function. It occurs in response to some kind of stimulus. Often, it causes the output of a system to be lessened; so, the feedback tends to stabilize the system. This can be referred to as homeostasis, as in biology, or equilibrium, as in mechanics.
Any circuit that has a linear DC operating point is negative feedback. If the output settles (but not stuck high or low, VOH, VOL) when the input is constant then it is negative feedback.
In a negative feedback loop, the input causes an increase in output, which triggers a decrease in input. The action of a room-temperature regulator, or thermostat, is a good example of a negative feedback mechanism.
A feedback loop is a process in which the outputs of a system are circled back and used as inputs. In business, this refers to the process of using customer or employee feedback (the outputs of a service or product), to create a better product or workplace.
negative feedback loops, in which a change in a given direction causes change in the opposite direction. For example, an increase in the concentration of a substance causes feedback that ultimately causes the concentration of the substance to decrease.
Negative feedback is more common in the body than positive feedback because negative feedback loops seek to maintain homeostasis by negating any stimulus that changes the body's set points. An example of negative feedback is the regulation of body temperature at around 98.6 degrees F.
Whereas positive feedback tends to lead to instability via exponential growth, oscillation or chaotic behavior, negative feedback generally promotes stability. Negative feedback tends to promote a settling to equilibrium, and reduces the effects of perturbations.
Of the listed possibilities the one that provides the best example of how an organism uses negative feedback to maintain homeostasis is that insulin is secreted to increase glucose uptake by cells and lower blood sugar levels after eating.
Positive feedback loops enhance or amplify changes; this tends to move a system away from its equilibrium state and make it more unstable. Negative feedbacks tend to dampen or buffer changes; this tends to hold a system to some equilibrium state making it more stable.
According to Wikipedia, in a feedback loop, the 'feedback' occurs when “outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop.” This is true because of the nature of these systems as self-regulating.
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