Homeostasis, step by step
The general form of a negative feedback loop.
- StimulusA variable moves away from its set point.
- Receptor detects itThermoreceptors, chemoreceptors, osmoreceptors.
- Control centre comparesUsually the hypothalamus or a gland.
- Effector respondsMuscle or gland acts to reverse the change.
- Return to set pointThe stimulus is removed; the loop switches off.
Positive feedback
- Amplifies rather than reverses
- Childbirth: oxytocin and contractions
- Blood clotting
- Rare, because it is unstable by design
Negative feedback is self-limiting and stable. Positive feedback runs to completion, which is why it is used sparingly.
Questions about the Homeostasis poster
- What’s on the Homeostasis (Physiology) poster?
- 5 numbered steps, with a full worked run-through. The general form of a negative feedback loop. Stimulus — A variable moves away from its set point.; Receptor detects it — Thermoreceptors, chemoreceptors, osmoreceptors.; Control centre compares — Usually the hypothalamus or a gland.; Effector responds — Muscle or gland acts to reverse the change.; Return to set point — The stimulus is removed; the loop switches off.. Negative feedback is self-limiting and stable. Positive feedback runs to completion, which is why it is used sparingly.
- Who is the Homeostasis (Physiology) poster for?
- Homeostasis (Physiology) belongs to the Biology section rather than to a school year, because life science is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning physiology can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Homeostasis (Physiology) poster?
- Receptor, control centre, effector, response. Every homeostatic mechanism has all four. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Homeostasis (Physiology) belongs on the wall where that life science work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Homeostasis (Physiology)?
- Blood Glucose Control, The Cardiac Cycle and The Circulatory System sit alongside Homeostasis (Physiology) in the Biology section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Blood Glucose ControlThe Cardiac CycleThe Circulatory System
- Is the Homeostasis (Physiology) poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Homeostasis (Physiology) downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Biology section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Homeostasis (Physiology) poster print at?
- Homeostasis (Physiology) is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Homeostasis (Physiology) loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Homeostasis on the same wall.
Browse every Biology poster, or start from the full catalogue.