Branches

[Musculature of man doing karate kick]
Defense physiology investigates nature’s natural defensive reactions.
There are a great number of disciplines that use the word physiology in their title. Below are some examples:
  • Cell physiology – studying the way cells work and interact; cell physiology mostly concentrates on membrane transport and neuron transmission.
  • Systems physiology – this focuses on the computational and mathematical modeling of complex biological systems. It tries to describe the way individual cells or components of a system converge to respond as a whole. They often investigate metabolic networks and cell signaling.
  • Evolutionary physiology – studying the way systems, or parts of systems, have adapted and changed over multiple generations. Research topics cover a lot of ground including the role of behavior in evolution, sexual selection, and physiological changes in relation to geographic variation.
  • Defense physiology – changes that occur as a reaction to a potential threat, such as preparation for the fight-or-flight response.
  • Exercise physiology – as the name suggests, this is the study of the physiology of physical exercise. This includes research into bioenergetics, biochemistry, cardiopulmonary function, biomechanics, hematology, skeletal muscle physiology, neuroendocrine function, and nervous system function.

The topics mentioned above are just a small selection of the available physiologies. The field of physiology is as essential as it is vast.