To sum up , we can distinguish two main types of functional responses of any living organism to activate the survival mechanisms: PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT. And there is the particularity that these two responses cannot occur simultaneously, because one represents the closing of the system and the other the opening.
To Walter B. Cannon we owe the concept of Homeostasis. It was based on C. Bernard’s earlier idea of the Internal Environment, which Cannon himself developed in his book “The Wisdom of the Body”. It is the self-regulating process by which an organic stability is maintained while it is affected by a change in external conditions.
HOMEOSTASIS is the most important self-regulatory process of survival of our organism and represents the main response of PROTECTION. It is a stable state of equilibrium in a changing environment that relies on internal and external sensory information to enable the organism to develop life. This equilibrium, which is situated in an extremely small variation, is not achieved by a static situation but by a constant reaction to any stimulus, internal or external, that affects it. Evolution has prioritised this response of the protective function that guarantees survival.
But homeostasis is not a sufficient guarantee of survival because it would be too risky to always be trying to correct an imbalance once it has already occurred, specially in an organism that is interacting with an unstable environment. Evolution has ensured that once responses have ensured the protection and survival of the organism, other responses are set in motion to allow organisms to anticipate imbalances and explore possible solutions. ALOSTASIS is the recovering physiological process of an organism subjected to a state of stress. It represents the main response of DEVELOPMENT, raising the level of adaptation and requires a free exchange of information between the organism and the environment. This increase is conditioned by the concept of Hormesis, which requires the right dose of stimuli, no more and no less, to produce maximum adaptations. This variation of the balance, taking into account the factors that produced the imbalance, is known as Homeoresis, a variable homeostatic phenomenon.
Only genes that prove useful for the preservation of life in a given environment become integrated as a bioalgorithm and are most likely to be passed on to future generations. But an organism that relies solely on genetic information, which is not very flexible, would find it very difficult to react to sudden changes in the environment. As a perfect complement to this genetic “rigidity”, we have a highly developed and flexible nervous system that provides the brain with all the information about what is happening in the face of any variation in the environment. It analyses it and relates it to what it already has in memory in order to be able to elaborate strategies of action that place the organism within this homeostatic balance.
IMPORTANCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
We are part of the environment which in turn stimulates and shapes adaptive behaviour. The importance of the environment is that all functions of the organism are influenced by it. The genetic system and the nervous system are developed to adapt us as well as possible to the environment in which we live.
The environment stimulates and shapes adaptive behaviour. We can say that the environment is part of our cognitive system because one cannot happen without the other. The flow of information is so great and continuous that the mind itself alone cannot be considered the only meaningful unit of analysis. Cognition occurs for action. Brain activity involves perception and action. Maintaining that balance requires excellent internal management and a good external relationship because the activity takes place in a real context.
An important part of cognition occurs unconsciously and is based on the body, because it is the body that interacts with the environment through mechanisms of sensory perception and motor control. The body is the regulatory centre for sensory information related to the need to preserve life. In this sense, body movement constitutes a fundamental form of relationship between our organism with its different systems and the environment in which our life develops. And it establishes a two-way relationship, because it is not only responsible for collecting information from the stimuli that occur around us, it is also responsible for expressing everything that occurs within us to the environment that surrounds us. It is crucial to understand this bilaterality because when we develop the movement of the body in a medium, we treat this relationship as a single cognitive unit, which interrelates, interacts and influences each other.
By considering the organism and the environment as a single system, the opportunity arises to alter the whole system by acting on one of them. By modifying the environment and the lived experience through exercise or movement, specific organic adaptations are obtained. This is the fundamental principle of physical training and occurs with any organ, but uniquely with the brain. Because of its plasticity, the brain is particularly sensitive to environmental stimuli. By modulating environmental conditions, stimuli are provided that modify the structure and alter the functioning of the brain.
CONCLUSION
The environment stimulates and shapes our adaptive behaviours that initially seek to maintain the homeostatic level. Once this level of protection is consolidated, development is sought. Reacting to a stimulus is not the safest thing to do, allostasis makes it possible to anticipate and raise the level of adaptation.
The importance of the environment is that it has a determining influence on all organic functions. By altering the environment we are also altering adaptive behaviours. Movement and exercise are ways of relating to and altering the environment in search of desired organic adaptations. And the brain is particularly sensitive to these alterations.
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