Courses

 

Undergraduate Courses

 

BME350H / MIE331H:

Physiological Control Systems

Summary: 

The purpose of this course is to provide undergraduate engineering students with an introduction to physiological concepts and selected physiological control systems present in the human body.  Due to the scope and complexity of this field, this course will not cover all physiological control systems but rather a selected few such as the neuromuscular, cardiovascular, and endocrine control systems.  This course will also provide an introduction to the structures and mechanisms responsible for the proper functioning of these systems.  This course will combine linear control theory, physiology, and neuroscience with the objective of explaining how these complex systems operate in a healthy human body.

The first part of the course will provide an introduction into physiology and give an overview of the main physiological systems. The second part of the course will focus on the endocrine system and its subsystems, including glucose regulation, thyroid metabolic hormones, and the menstrual cycle. The third part of the course will include discussion on the cardiovascular system and related aspects such as cardiac output, venous return, control of blood flow by the tissues, and nervous regulation of circulation.  The fourth and final section of the course will focus on the central nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, proprioception, kinesthetic, and control of voluntary motion.

 

Course Coordinator:

Prof. Mary K. Nagai

Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
University of Toronto
164 College
St., Room 407
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 3G9, Canada