Lesson 1 of 11 · 6 min

Coordination

NCERT §18 (opening)

The gun fires and Meher is off. Within seconds she is breathing harder and her heart is pounding, yet she never told either of them to change. Something linked her legs, lungs and heart without her asking.

The story this chapter follows: Meher's 800 m, from the start gun

Meher crouched at the start of the 800 m and waited for the gun. The crack reached her ears, her brain sorted it in a fraction of a second, and a command raced down her spinal cord to her legs. Over the next two minutes her breathing, heart and blood flow rose in step. This chapter follows the wiring that made all of that happen at once.

The lesson in notes

In short

Organs must be coordinated to keep homeostasis. Coordination is the process by which two or more organs interact and complement one another's functions.

During physical exercise, working muscles need more energy and more oxygen. To supply it, the rate of breathing, the heart beat and blood flow through the vessels all rise.

When exercise stops, the activities of nerves, lungs, heart and kidneys gradually return to normal. Muscles, lungs, heart, blood vessels and kidneys are thus coordinated during exercise.

The neural system and the endocrine system together coordinate and integrate the activities of all organs so that they work in a synchronised way.

The neural system gives an organised network of point-to-point connections for quick coordination; the endocrine system gives chemical integration through hormones.