Homeostasis & Feedback Loops Explorer
See how the body keeps conditions steady. Pick a scenario, step through the parts of the feedback loop, and watch a regulated value move back toward its set point for negative feedback or run away for positive feedback. Finish with a quiz that asks you to tell the two kinds of feedback apart.
Pick a scenario
Body temperature readout
39.5 °CFeedback loop
Quiz, negative or positive feedback
0 / 6 correctWhen you get too hot, you sweat and cool down toward 37 °C.
During childbirth, each contraction triggers stronger contractions until the baby is born.
After a meal, insulin lowers high blood glucose back to normal.
When a vessel is cut, activated platelets attract more platelets until a clot forms.
When you get too cold, you shiver to warm back up toward 37 °C.
When blood pressure climbs, the heart slows to bring pressure back down to normal.
Answered 0 of 6 questions.
Reference Guide
Parts of a feedback loop
- Stimulus. A change moves a body condition away from its normal level, called the set point.
- Sensor. Special cells called receptors detect the change.
- Control center. A part of the body, often the brain or a gland, compares the reading to the set point and decides what to do.
- Effector. Muscles or glands carry out the order.
- Response. The action changes the condition. In negative feedback the change is reversed. In positive feedback the change is made stronger.
Negative vs positive feedback
Negative feedback reverses a change and returns the variable to its set point. It is the main way the body stays in balance. Examples include cooling down when you are too hot, warming up when you are too cold, lowering blood glucose after a meal, and steadying blood pressure.
Positive feedback makes a change bigger and bigger until a clear end point is reached. It is less common in the body. Examples include the contractions of childbirth and the buildup of platelets during blood clotting.
Why homeostasis matters
Homeostasis is the steady internal state that living things keep even when the outside world changes. Cells work best within narrow ranges of temperature, water, sugar, and acidity. Feedback loops are the control systems that hold those conditions near their set points, so the body keeps working through hot days, cold nights, meals, and exercise.
How to use this tool
- Pick a scenario from the list of six body conditions.
- Read the five labelled steps of the loop in the diagram.
- Press Step to advance time. The readout chart shows the value moving toward the set point for negative feedback or away from it for positive feedback. The highlighted loop step cycles as you go.
- Answer the quiz to practice telling negative and positive feedback apart.
