General patterns of human adaptation. Basic patterns and types of adaptation
Hazard Analysis
Energy-entropy concept of danger.
Energy-entropy concept of danger is a set of ideas about the nature of danger and the conditions for their implementation.
Everyday human activity is potentially dangerous, because. associated with the use various kinds energy. Dangers appear as a result of an uncontrolled release of energy. The occurrence of undesirable consequences is a consequence of the emergence and development of a causal chain of prerequisites. The initiators of this chain, most often, are the erroneous actions of a person, in addition, a malfunction in the technique or the impact of it at a distance can serve.
All this does not contradict the fundamental property of entropy (a measure of disorder): Any system left to itself tends to the maximum of entropy, i.e. to maximum chaos. Such a state is equilibrium-stable and the system can stay in it for an arbitrarily long time. Any attempts by a person as a result of his activity to streamline the system lead to a decrease in entropy and to instability, to a potentially dangerous state.
The energy-entropy concept of danger makes it possible to trace the path of an undesirable release of energy, and this underlies the construction of an accident tree.
For analysis, a graphical representation (graph, tree) of a logically interconnected sequence of failure events, causes, consequences, is used.
Hazard Study Sequence:
1. Preliminary hazard analysis
a) identification of the source of danger
b) identify the parts of the system that can cause these hazards
c) introduce a restriction on the analysis
2. Select (form) the sequence of action of the danger by building an incident tree
3. Incident tree analysis
Health(according to WHO, established. 1968) is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (and not just the absence of disease).
Currently, there is no unequivocal opinion about the factors responsible for the formation of health, but according to WHO:
While maintaining the current trend in the development of the world community in 30-40 years, the state of health of Russians up to 70% will depend on the state of the environment.
Currently, 4 million toxic substances affecting the human body have been recorded, and their number increases by 6000 annually. This has led to the fact that 80% of diseases are caused by the state of the environment, every 4th inhabitant of the planet suffers from allergic diseases, ≈10% newborns have deviations from health. There are already 2,500 known diseases localized at the gene and chronic levels. Already now ≈50% of the gene pool of the European population is not reproduced in the next generations.
Recently, the social component that affects health has increased, from which specific diseases follow: chronic fatigue syndrome, life apathy, and mental disorders.
A comprehensive assessment of the state of human health is life expectancy and indicators of the biological age of a person.
Occupational Health- the ability of the human body to maintain the specified compensatory and protective means that ensure performance in the conditions in which the activity takes place.
When conducting analyzes of various factors affecting human health, priority is given to the risk factor that directly leads to the onset of the disease.
Evaluation of the elimination of factors that adversely affect human health is very important when creating technological equipment. These factors can be eliminated with the help of engineering solutions, adaptation, including social adaptation.
Adaptation is the process of adapting to changing environmental conditions.
Adaptation mechanisms
The study of the ways and mechanisms of adaptation of the body is of particular importance today in connection with the development of new geographical regions by man, the need to work in unusual climatic conditions, the migration of the population to the eastern and northern regions of the country, the development of the Arctic and Antarctica, the need for human work in deserts, in conditions high mountains, as well as in connection with the development of aviation, astronautics, deep-sea diving, the development of ocean shelves, the emergence of new types of labor and new professions. All this puts forward completely new tasks and problems for physiology, the solution of which should ensure the satisfaction of the requirements of the biological nature of man, the creation of optimal conditions for ensuring his life, increasing labor productivity, maintaining and improving health. These tasks can be solved only by deeply studying the essence of the requirements of the biological nature of the organism and satisfying these requirements. It is known that recently people are increasingly aware of the danger of an irresponsible attitude towards the environment. They began to take into account the possible consequences of the destructive action of man on nature more and more. Hence the development and implementation of measures necessary to protect the environment and nature.
To an even greater extent, all this should apply to man himself, to our own biological nature, in relation to which nihilism should not be allowed.
METHODS TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF ADAPTATION
They can be non-specific and specific.
Non-specific methods to increase the effectiveness of adaptation:
active recreation, hardening, optimal (average) physical activity, adaptogens and therapeutic dosages of various resort factors that can increase nonspecific resistance, normalize the activity of the body's main systems and thereby increase life expectancy.
Consider the mechanism of action of non-specific methods on the example of adaptogens.
Adaptogens
- these are means that carry out pharmacological regulation of the body's adaptive processes, as a result of which the functions of organs and systems are activated, the body's defenses are stimulated, and resistance to adverse external factors increases.
An increase in the efficiency of adaptation can be achieved in various ways: with the help of doping stimulants or tonics.
Stimulants
excitatory effect on certain structures of the central nervous system, activate metabolic processes in organs and tissues. This intensifies the processes of catabolism. The action of these substances appears quickly, but it is short-lived, as it is accompanied by exhaustion.
The use of tonics
leads to the predominance of anabolic processes, the essence of which lies in the synthesis of structural substances and energy-rich compounds. These substances prevent violations of energy and plastic processes in tissues, as a result, the body's defenses are mobilized and its resistance to extreme factors increases.
The mechanism of action of adaptogens,
leading to an adaptive restructuring of the functions of organs, systems and the body as a whole, proposed by E. Ya. Kaplan et al. (1990), is shown in Figure 1.6. The diagram below shows some directions of influence of adaptogens on cellular metabolism. First, they can act on extracellular regulatory systems– CNS (path 1) and endocrine system(path 2), as well as directly interact with cell receptors different type, modulate their sensitivity to the action of neurotransmitters and hormones (pathway 3). Along with this, adaptogens are able to directly affect biomembranes (path 4) by affecting their structure, the interaction of the main membrane components - proteins and lipids, increasing the stability of membranes, changing their selective permeability and the activity of enzymes associated with them. Adaptogens can, penetrating into the cell (pathways 5 and 6), directly activate various intracellular systems.
Thus, due to adaptive transformations occurring on different levels biological organization, a state of non-specifically increased resistance to various adverse effects is formed in the body.
Specific methods for increasing the efficiency of adaptation.
These methods are based on increasing the body's resistance to any specific environmental factor: cold, high temperature, hypoxia, etc.
Let's consider some specific methods on the example of adaptation to hypoxia. Intensive searches for ways to increase resistance to high-altitude hypoxia over the past decades have been carried out by N. N. Sirotinin, V. B. Malkin and his co-workers, M. M. Mirrakhimov and others. antihypoxic pharmacological agents. Materials are presented on the protective effect of the combined effect on the body of hypoxic training and taking pharmaceuticals.
General patterns of human adaptation
In the literature, adaptation is called both the processes and phenomena of adaptation of an individual, and changes in organisms and entire populations throughout their existence. In biology, adaptation is the acquisition by organisms of traits and properties that are most beneficial to an individual or the entire population, thanks to which they can live in their habitat.
The adaptive features of an organism - form, physiology and behavior - are inseparable from its environment. The process of adaptation to natural climatic and geographical conditions, and in humans also to social and production conditions, is a universal phenomenon. Adaptation includes all types of innate and acquired adaptive activities, which are provided by physiological mechanisms of all structural levels. Any activity in this or that changed situation is much more expensive than in the usual conditions.
Switching body responses to new level is not given for free and flows at the voltage of all systems. This tension is called the price of adaptation. Ability to adapt - adaptability has limits specific to the species and community. An organism can exist optimal conditions endogenous, i.e. internal environment, and exogenous - external, ecological environment. On both sides of the optimum, biological activity decreases, and in extreme conditions the organism will not be able to exist at all: adaptation has its own range, limits and price.
Adaptation factors are called extreme, or stress factors. Natural factors act in combination, they can have a signal value and initiate anticipatory adaptation reactions, for example, to the change of seasons.
A person adapts, using the protective means that civilization has given. This weakens the load on adaptive systems and has negative aspects: it reduces adaptability, for example, to cold. He creates factors that require a wide range of adaptation: social and related conditions give rise to specific circumstances, the number of which is growing and to which one must adapt.
The genetic program does not provide for a pre-formed adaptation, but the possibility of effective purposeful implementation of vitally necessary adaptive responses under the influence of the environment. As a result of genotypic adaptation on the basis of heredity, mutations and selection, biological species were formed. The complex of specific inherited traits - the genotype - becomes the starting point for the next stage of adaptation, acquired during the life of an individual.
Individual or phenotypic adaptation is formed in the process of interaction of a particular organism with its environment and is provided by structural morphofunctional changes specific to this environment. In the process, traces of immunological and neurological memory are built, skills and behavior vectors are formed, and an information bank is created on the basis and as a result of selective expression of genes.
They protect a person from possible encounters with inadequate and dangerous factors. The results of phenotypic adaptation are not inherited, which is beneficial for the conservation of the species. It itself is not absolute, does not mean complete adaptation, and each new generation adapts anew to a spectrum of sometimes completely new factors that require the development of new specialized reactions. It is in such conditions that adaptive reactions are developed, and at the same time the body acquires a new quality.
The key link and mechanism of all forms of phenotypic adaptation is the connection of functions with the genetic apparatus. Due to the complex, biologically expedient and branched architecture of the structural trace, active adaptation to one factor can lead to cross-effects: increase or decrease resistance to others. This is due to the ratio of adaptation processes under the combined action of various adaptogenic factors, as well as the state of the body in different phases of adaptation.
Adaptation develops as a response to extreme factors, and an important component of it is the stress syndrome - the sum of nonspecific reactions associated with the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system. "Hormons of adaptation" - corticosteroids and catecholamines of the adrenal glands - stimulate the mechanisms of homeostasis, energy processes, adaptive synthesis of enzymatic and structural proteins, the immune system. The adaptive synthesis of enzymes is important in managing the process of urgent adaptation, the synthesis of structural proteins is a condition for the transition from urgent to long-term sustainable adaptation.
Due to the inertness of the metabolic processes, the process of adaptation is relatively long. A persistent, directed change in metabolism is preceded by behavioral responses, changes in the functions of visceral organs, as well as a motor system that relies on and controls metabolism for adaptation. Physical activity itself is an adaptogenic factor.
Three types of adaptive behavior are distinguished: passive submission, flight from an unfavorable factor, and active resistance through the formation of adaptive reactions. G. Selye called passive form syntactic, and active resistance associated with the development of specific and nonspecific reactions - catatactic.
The biological meaning of active adaptation is to establish and maintain a new level of homeostasis, which allows one to exist in a changed environment. The essence of accommodation is in the restructuring of the mechanisms of homeostasis, adequate to specific conditions, and it can be represented as a chain of reactions of various systems, some of which modify their activity, while others regulate these changes.
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LECTURE 4 GENERAL PATTERNS OF ADAPTATION OF THE HUMAN BODY TO VARIOUS CONDITIONS.
Human adaptation to new natural and industrial conditions can be briefly described as a set of socio-biological properties and characteristics necessary for the sustainable existence of an organism in a specific ecological habitat. Through production, nature is included in the system of social relations.Adaptation at the level of the organism - the evolution of adaptations
Physiological adaptation is a stable level of activity and interconnection of functional systems, organs and tissues, as well as control mechanisms. It ensures the normal functioning of the body and the labor activity of a person in new (including social) conditions of existence, the ability to reproduce healthy offspring.
For any organism, there is an optimal endogenous and exogenous, that is, internal and external, ecological environment, and the habitat is not only with optimal characteristics of physical conditions, but also with specific production and social conditions. On both sides of the optimum, labor and biological activity gradually declines until, finally, conditions become such that the organism cannot exist at all. For example, a person will not be able to fully live and work in high mountains at an altitude of more than 4000 m or in an arid, arid desert zone at a temperature of 40 ° C and above.
Starting from the moment of birth, the body suddenly finds itself in completely new conditions for itself and is forced to adapt the activity of all its organs and systems to them. In the future, in the course of individual development, the factors acting on the organism are continuously modified, sometimes acquiring an unusual strength or an unusual character, which requires constant functional restructuring. Thus, the process of adapting an organism to natural - climatic and geographical, and in humans also to industrial and social conditions, is a universal phenomenon.
Evolution and forms of adaptation
There is a genotypic adaptation, as a result of which modern animal species were formed on the basis of heredity, mutations and natural selection. The complex of specific hereditary traits - the genotype - becomes the starting point for the next stage of adaptation, acquired during the life of each individual. This so-called individual or phenotypic adaptation is formed in the process of interaction of a particular organism with its environment and is provided by structural morphofunctional changes specific to this environment.
In the process of individual adaptation, a person creates reserves of memory and skills, forms vectors of behavior as a result of formation in the body based on the selective expression of genes of a bank of memorable structural traces.
Adaptogenic factors
G. Selye, who approached the problem of adaptation from new original positions, called the factors, the impact of which leads to adaptation, stress factors. Their other name is extreme factors. Extreme can be not only individual effects on the body, but also changed conditions of existence in general (for example, the movement of a person from the south to the Far North, etc.). In relation to a person, adaptogenic factors can be natural and social, associated with labor activity.
social factors. In addition to the fact that the human body is subject to the same natural influences as the animal body, the social conditions of a person’s life, factors associated with his work activity, have generated specific factors to which it is necessary to adapt. Their number grows with the development of civilization.
Pollution of the environment, the inclusion in food of a large number of synthetic products, alcoholic beverages, drug abuse, smoking - all this is an additional burden on the homeostatic systems of the body of a modern person.
Development phases of the adaptation process
The phase course of adaptation reactions, first identified by G. Selye, no one doubts. Let's look at these phases.
The first phase - "emergency" - develops at the very beginning of the action of both physiological and pathogenic factors or changed environmental conditions. At the same time, visceral service systems react: blood circulation, respiration. These reactions are controlled by the central nervous system with a wide involvement of hormonal factors, in particular the hormones of the adrenal medulla (catecholamines), which in turn is accompanied by an increased tone of the sympathetic system. The activation of the sympathetic-adrenal system results in such shifts in vegetative functions that are catabolic in nature and provide the body with the energy it needs, as if in anticipation of the costs that will be necessary in the near future. These preventive measures are a vivid illustration of the manifestation of "anticipatory" excitation.
In the emergency phase, increased activity vegetative systems proceeds uncoordinated, with elements of chaos. Reactions are generalized and uneconomical and often exceed the level required for given conditions. The number of changed indicators in the activities of various systems is unreasonably large. The control of functions by the nervous system and humoral factors is not sufficiently synchronized, the entire phase as a whole is of a exploratory nature and is presented as an attempt to adapt to a new factor or to new conditions, mainly due to organ and systemic mechanisms.
Tissue, and even more so molecular processes in the cells and membranes of the body in this phase do not change directionally, since their stationary restructuring requires more time.
The emergency phase of adaptation mainly proceeds against the background of increased emotionality (often negative modality). Consequently, the mechanisms of this phase also include all the elements of the central nervous system, which provide precisely emotional shifts in the body.
The emergency phase of adaptation can be expressed in different ways, depending not only on the individual characteristics of the organism, but also on the strength of irritating factors (the stronger they are, the more pronounced this phase is). Accordingly, it can be accompanied by a strongly or weakly expressed emotional component, on which, in turn, the mobilization of vegetative mechanisms depends.
The second phase is transitional to sustainable adaptation. It is characterized by a decrease in the general excitability of the central nervous system, the formation of functional systems that provide control of adaptation to new conditions that have arisen. The intensity of hormonal shifts decreases, a number of systems and organs, initially involved in the reaction, are gradually turned off. During this phase, the body's adaptive reactions gradually switch to a deeper tissue level. The hormonal background is modified, the hormones of the adrenal cortex - "hormones of adaptation" - enhance their action.
Following the transitional phase, the third phase begins - the phase of stable adaptation, or resistance. It is actually an adaptation - an adaptation - and is characterized by a new level of activity of tissue cellular membrane elements, rebuilt due to the temporary activation of auxiliary systems, which, at the same time, can function practically in the original mode, while tissue processes are activated, providing homeostasis, adequate to the new conditions of existence.
The main features of this phase are:
1) mobilization of energy resources;
2) increased synthesis of structural and enzymatic proteins;
3) mobilization of immune systems.
In the third phase, the body acquires nonspecific and specific resistance - the resistance of the body.
Control mechanisms during the third phase are coordinated. Their manifestations are kept to a minimum. However, in general, this phase also requires intense control, which makes it impossible for it to continue indefinitely. Despite the cost-effectiveness - turning off "extra" reactions, and, consequently, excessive energy consumption, switching the body's reactivity to a new level is not given to the body for nothing, but proceeds at a certain voltage of the control systems. This tension is commonly referred to as the "price of adaptation". Any activity in an organism adapting to a particular situation costs it much more than under normal conditions (for example, it requires 25% more energy during physical exertion in mountain conditions than in normal conditions).
However, this phase cannot be regarded as something absolutely stable. During the life of an organism that is in the phase of stable adaptation, deviations are possible - fluctuations: temporary maladjustment (decrease in stability) and readaptation (restoration of stability). These fluctuations are associated both with the functional state of the body and with the action of various side factors.
Adaptation mechanisms
The first contact of the body with changed conditions or individual factors causes an orienting reaction, which can turn into generalized excitation in parallel. If the irritation reaches a certain intensity, this leads to the excitation of the sympathetic system and the release of adrenaline.
Such a background of neuroregulatory relationships is typical for the first phase of adaptation - emergency. During the subsequent period, new coordination relationships are formed: enhanced efferent synthesis leads to the implementation of purposeful defensive reactions. The hormonal background changes due to the inclusion of the pituitary-adrenal system. Glucocorticoids and biologically active substances secreted in tissues mobilize structures, as a result of which tissues receive increased energy, plastic and protective support. All this forms the basis of the third phase (sustainable adaptation).
It is important to note that the transitional phase of persistent adaptation takes place only if the adaptogenic factor has sufficient intensity and duration of action. If it acts for a short time, then the emergency phase stops and the adaptation process is not formed. If the adaptogenic factor acts for a long time or repeatedly intermittently, this creates sufficient prerequisites for the formation of so-called "structural traces". The effects of factors are summed up, metabolic changes deepen and increase, and the emergency phase of adaptation turns into a transitional, and then into a phase of stable adaptation.
Since the phase of persistent adaptation is associated with a constant tension of control mechanisms, restructuring of nervous and humoral relationships, and the formation of new functional systems, these processes can be depleted in certain cases. If we take into account that hormonal mechanisms play an important role in the development of adaptive processes, it becomes clear that they are the most depleted link.
Depletion of control mechanisms, on the one hand, and cellular mechanisms associated with increased energy costs, on the other hand, leads to maladaptation.
The symptoms of this condition are functional changes in the activity of the body, reminiscent of those shifts that are observed in the phase of acute adaptation.
Auxiliary systems - respiration, blood circulation - come into a state of increased activity again, energy is wasted uneconomically. However, coordination between systems that provide a state adequate to the requirements of the external environment is carried out incompletely, which can lead to death.
Disadaptation occurs most often in those cases when the action of the factors that were the main stimulators of adaptive changes in the body increases, and this becomes incompatible with life.
Reactions to additional stimuli in the conditions of adaptation phases
Any living system - be it the simplest organism, standing on a low rung of the evolutionary ladder, the highest animal, or, finally, man - is never subjected to the isolated action of any one stimulus. Each short-term acting, according to I.P. Pavlova "emergency", the stimulus coincides with a certain background of the reactivity of the body. In turn, this background is created by living conditions, certain stressful situations. Therefore, the same organism different periods time may be in different phases of the adaptation process. It follows from this that its resistance to a given emergency factor (irritant) may be different depending on which phase of adaptation the stimulus coincides with at this time.
Thus, the most complicated process of adaptation is to a certain extent manageable. The methods of hardening the body developed by scientists serve to improve its adaptive capabilities. At the same time, it should be taken into account that adaptation to any inadequate factor is associated with a waste of not only energy, but also structural - genetically determined - resources of the body. In each specific case, the scientifically substantiated determination of the strategy and tactics, as well as the quantity and quality (“dose”) of adaptation, is as important an undertaking as determining the dose of a potent pharmacological drug.
The life of a modern person is very mobile, and in ordinary vivo his body continuously adapts to a whole range of natural, climatic and social production factors
CHAPTER 2. MAIN REGULARITIES OF THE ADAPTATION PROCESS
The adaptation process is implemented in all cases when significant changes occur in the human-environment system, leading to a violation of the adequacy of their relationship. Since the person and the environment are not in a static, but in a dynamic balance, their ratio is constantly changing, and the process of adaptation is also constantly carried out. Equilibrium, according to V.G. Leontiev, is a dynamic process of balancing. This process takes place not only within one system, but also involves other systems and involves systems of the external environment. Balancing cannot take place within the framework of one isolated system and only at the expense of its own resources; it is necessary to have connected systems to transfer resources from one system to another, from this one to a third, etc. Therefore, "balancing in one system of an organism or personality leads to an imbalance in another, and balance in this one leads to its violation in a third, and so on endlessly" .
The main task of the constantly ongoing process of adaptation is to maintain the state of homeostasis. The concept of homeostasis was first put forward in physiology by C. Bernard and developed in the works of U. Kahnnon, H. Selye, A.D. Slonim and others. According to this concept, homeostasis is understood as the constancy of a number of indicators of the internal environment of an organism, which is a necessary condition for the life of any biological system. In a number of areas of psychology, the idea that each system strives to maintain its stability was also transferred to the interaction of a person with the environment. Such a transfer is typical, in particular, for the concept of J. Piaget and for the field theory of K. Lewin (K. Lewin). F.B. Berezin notes in this regard that "adaptation processes include not only the optimization of the functioning of the organism, but also the maintenance of balance in the organism-environment system" .
Violation of the homeostatic balance in the human-environment system, according to F.B. Berezina, may occur in the following cases: with a sharp change in environmental conditions, as a result of which existing arrangements adaptations may not be effective enough; with a significant transformation of the needs and goals of the individual (even in a relatively stable environment); with a significant decrease in the physical or mental resources of the individual.
By definition, V.I. Medvedev, "adaptation is a purposeful systemic reaction of the organism, providing the possibility of all types of social activity and life under the influence of factors, the intensity and extensiveness of which leads to disturbances in the homeostatic balance" . This reaction can have a different strength and intensity.
Depending on the severity of the reactions of the organism, V.P. Kaznacheev distinguishes several types of adaptive states:
a) the state of "physiological" adaptation - the usual existence of an organism in changing environmental conditions with optimal mode all functional systems; b) a state of intense adaptation - when there is a need for restructuring, changing the existing parameters of activity, which always requires a certain tension in the work of the interested functional systems;
c) the state of pathological adaptation, which occurs when the reserve capacity of the organism is exceeded, i.e. its interaction with the environment is determined by the work of functional systems that differ significantly from the optimum (for example, a disease). At the stage of pathological adaptation, complete depletion of adaptive mechanisms is possible. A.I. Volozhin and Yu.K. Subbotin distinguish three levels of adaptive reactions: sensitized, characterized by increased functional activity to the influencing factor; optimal, corresponding to the norm of adaptation; depressive, determined by reduced functional activity at one or another level of the adaptation process.
D.V. Kolesov uses the term "reactivity" to determine the strength and duration of adaptive reactions of a person, understood as a quantitative and temporal characteristic of functional changes in the body that occur in response to exposure and underlie the achievement of one or another adaptive effect. The quantitative and temporal characteristics of adaptability normally correspond to the magnitude of the mismatch between the necessary and existing levels of adaptability (normergia). If they exceed the mismatch value, they speak of hyperreactivity (hyperergy); if they are below the mismatch value, they speak of hyporeactivity (hypoergy), up to unreactivity - the absence of adaptive reactions where they should be. Thus, normergy is an exact correspondence to the degree of adaptive shifts in the current adaptive situation. The systemic reaction of the body to a violation of the homeostatic balance can also be qualitatively different. So, D.V. Kolesov describes specific and non-specific adaptive responses. The most general reaction of the organism is reflected by non-specific reactions, which are most often expressed in the development of a general adaptation syndrome. Specific adaptive reactions are developed much more slowly, their characteristic feature is the interaction and cooperation of those elements of functional systems that provide the formation of the final beneficial effect. Adaptive reactions can also be divided into two classes - fast-acting reactions of urgent adaptation, for which there are ready-made, fully formed mechanisms, and reactions of long-term adaptation. Long-term adaptation includes reactions for which a person does not have ready-made mechanisms, but only genetically determined prerequisites. The gradual formation of such mechanisms occurs with repeated inclusion of urgent adaptation reactions.
Similar provisions are also given by V.I. Medvedev, who distinguishes two types of body reactions. In the first case, in response to the action of the adaptive factor, all possible response mechanisms are realized and a functional state is formed that obviously exceeds the requirements for an adequate response (hypermobilization). Such a reaction is observed under the action of an extreme or unexpected factor.
The second type of reaction consists in a gradual increase in the number and power of response mechanisms. Accordingly, two response systems are distinguished in the adaptation mechanism - fast and slow. A.I. Volozhin and Yu.K. Subbotin opposes adaptive and compensatory reactions arising under the influence of environmental changes. Adaptation, which, according to the authors, is only one side of adaptation, is expressed in the fact that the body, reacting to changes in environmental parameters, rebuilds and changes its structural connections to preserve the functions that ensure its existence in the changed environment. Adaptation may include both physiological and behavioral responses, depending on the level of organization of the system. The main content of adaptation is the internal processes in the system, which ensure the preservation of its external functions in relation to the environment, i.e. maintaining homeostasis. In contrast to adaptation, compensation ensures the preservation of structures and functions in the response of an organism that changes under the influence of the environment, and thereby reduces the price of adaptation. We believe that such a division unnecessarily narrows the concept of adaptation, understood by most authors as a two-way adaptive-adaptive process, with adaptive reactions directed, respectively, to the internal or external environment. IN AND. Medvedev distinguishes three types of reaction in the general reaction of adaptation, the differences of which are also associated with the predominant focus of changes on one of the elements of the environment-man system. In the first type, for a person included in the social structure of society and performing certain social tasks, adaptation can be solved by influencing a complex of stimuli that lead to a change in homeostatic regulation. In this case, the form of influence on the environment can be passive, for example, by avoiding, or active, associated with the transformation of the environment. The second and third types are aimed at changing the forms of human response as a biological structure. One of them involves the inclusion of already existing regulatory programs and is designated as an addiction reaction. Another type of reaction provides for a mandatory change in the homeostatic regulation program and is considered as an adaptation process itself. Here, the regulation program is understood as a formalized order of deployment of the sequence, duration and severity of the body's response when interacting with the external environment. It is obvious that the described quantitative and qualitative adaptive reactions can successively replace each other in the dynamics of the adaptation process, since all of them individually are not able to maintain balance in the human-environment system with prolonged exposure to the adaptogenic factor. According to V.I. Medvedev, the reactions identified by him are most often different stages of a single adaptation process, in which at first reactions of a “cheaper” type of reaction for a person enter, and when they can no longer ensure the achievement of the goals of the activity, then in the process of optimization more powerful ones arise. adaptation reactions. The set of adaptive reactions from the initial psychological and physiological state of a person to the final one is an adaptive cycle, the main phases of which were considered, in particular, in the works of V.I. Medvedev and A.Zh. Yurevitsa and co-authors. An obligatory initial link in the chain of reactions of adaptation is the reaction of the primary response, which occurs in response to the appearance, disappearance or change in the quantitative parameters of any factor. This reaction successively passes through several periods. Initially, there is a latent period, which lasts from the beginning of the impact of the factor until the moment of the response. The content of the latent period is the so-called central delay, during which the analysis of information about the acting factor takes place, as well as the choice and activation of the program for implementing the response. The reaction of the primary response itself has three stages: the initial one, when the small value of the response gradually increases and passes into the second stage of the hyperresponse, and the third stage of the adequate reaction that then occurs.
This first adjustment response is followed by the pay-for-primary response. Its task is to ensure effective recovery of energy and psychological costs. The reaction of the board depends on the severity of the reaction of the primary response, as well as on the state of the regulatory systems. If the impact that disrupts homeostasis continues or is repeated, then while maintaining the constancy of the reaction of the primary response, the payment for it is minimized, which corresponds to the beginning of the habituation stage. The habituation process is characterized by the inclusion of already existing programs of homeostatic regulation, largely individual for each person and determined by his past experience and basic constitutional and psycho-physiological characteristics. The habituation reaction is characterized by a gradual restoration of psychological and physiological functions to the initial level after their temporary stress. H. Selye, in the process of habituation, identified three always existing sequential phases of its development: - the phase of regulation voltage, starting from the moment of the primary reaction and ending when the ready-made homeostasis regulation program is turned on, which in most cases causes hypermobilization , manifested by hyperreactivity;
- the phase of primary stabilization, starting from the moment of full implementation of the primary regulation program, in which the deviations of functions from the baseline gradually decrease in steps or in waves;
- the stabilization phase of the adjustable parameters, when the voltage indicators return to their original values.
According to V.I. Medvedev, the whole process of habituation can be the first phase of the actual adaptation, which never begins without an attempt to use ready-made mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis.
With sufficient intensity and duration of exposure to adaptogenic factors, when the existing regulatory mechanisms are not sufficient to restore balance in the human-environment system and the parameters of the reactions of the primary response and the reactions of payment for the primary response deviate beyond the limits of permissible fluctuations, the task of creating new system homeostatic regulation. Then the process of adaptation begins. According to V.P. Kaznacheev, new regulation programs are formed under the influence of adaptogenic factors. IN AND. Medvedev believes that the formation of new programs is directly determined by the severity and course of the reactions of the primary response and payment.
The adaptation process itself begins with the phase of destruction of the old homeostasis maintenance program, and a rather complicated situation arises when old program is no longer functioning, and new ones have not yet been created or are not completed. This phase is characterized by a number of specific features. Firstly, it is hyperreactivity to loads of low and medium intensity and refusal to perform loads of greater severity. Secondly, this phase of adaptation is accompanied by the removal of compensation mechanisms for existing pathological processes. At this stage, temporary mechanisms of the so-called preventive adaptation are switched on, allowing, although not at the optimal level, to achieve the goals of the activity and "survive" the difficult period of the absence of an adequate regulatory program. The most important component preventive adaptation is behavioral adaptation.
Behavioral reactions during this period have the main protective function, ensuring the minimization of the action of adaptogenic factors and regulation overstrain. F.F. Sultanov also speaks of a "pre-adaptation protective cap". Considering the issue of behavioral adaptation, V.I. Medvedev notes the importance of the little-studied mechanism of information protection, which limits the flow of information into the human brain for its subsequent processing. Information filtering can be carried out at all stages of its movement, starting from receptors and ending with the projection zones of the cerebral cortex and the inclusion of mnestic processes, where the forgetting mechanisms play the main role. With the participation of this information filter, a subjective conceptual model of reality is formed, in accordance with which an individual adaptation strategy is built. V.S. Rotenberg and V.V. Arshavsky call this mechanism "perceptual defense", with a high activity of which a person does not see what he does not want to see, does not perceive information that is potentially capable of aggravating or provoking an intrapsychic conflict. It is obvious that a similar function at this stage is performed by other psychological mechanisms of adaptation, which are described in more detail in the next chapter. The next phase of the adaptation process is characterized by the fact that "under the guise of behavioral adaptation, a new program for the deployment of regulatory mechanisms begins to form, a new structure of homeostatic regulation begins to be built" . The new program for maintaining homeostasis is constantly being improved, sometimes it is enough long time. Search for optimal operating parameters new program, according to A.Zh. Yurevits and co-authors, can occur both by complicating the program, building up its elements, and by gradually simplifying its structure from a hyper-reactive program, a maximum program to a more optimal simple structure. The choice of the optimization path is determined by the intensity of the acting factor: at small and medium values - from simple to complex, with a large adaptogenic factor, hyperreactivity is more often observed, generalization of the effect, followed by simplification of the regulation program. At the same time, the very presence of search activity (regardless of the effect achieved) improves psychological and psychophysiological adaptation, while the refusal to search worsens it.
When the search for the optimal program ends, the last phase of the adaptation process begins - the phase of stable adaptation, characterized by the stabilization of adaptation indicators, including performance parameters, which are set at a new, more optimal level. The adaptive reactions and stages of the adaptive process identified by the above authors are rather conditional and in many cases proceed in parallel, partially overlapping each other, but their description allows a better understanding of the insufficiently studied dynamics of students' adaptation to the learning process at a university. The study of specific adaptive reactions of students was undertaken by a number of authors. Thus, the study of the motivational-demand sphere of students during the period of vocational training allows us to present the process of their adaptation in the form of a sequential passage of the following three stages: the determining one, when the old school-home stereotype of behavior is broken and a new one is formed, significantly different from the previous one (1-3 semesters) , funded (4-6 semesters) and final (7-10 semesters), which generally corresponds to the general periodization of the adaptation process described above. The sequence of adaptive reactions of students was also described in the works of M.I. Dyachenko and L.A. Kondybovich, B.A. Benediktova, A.G. Smirnova. However, it should be noted that, in general, the issues of the dynamics of the process of adaptation to the conditions of study at a university, in contrast to the stages of adaptation under the influence of natural and production factors, have not been studied enough. Since the psychological components play the most significant role in improving the programs of adaptation to educational activities, the psychological mechanisms of the adaptation process deserve more detailed consideration.
Questions and tasks
1. Expand the main content of the concept of homeostasis.
2. Name the main causes of homeostatic imbalance in the human-environment system.
3. Describe the quantitative differences in the described levels of human adaptive response.
4. Describe the qualitative differences between individual types of adaptive responses.
5. Describe the features of the main phases of the adaptive cycle.
6. Describe the main stages of the adaptation process at the university.
Literature for self-training
1. Medvedev V.I. On the problem of adaptation // Components of the adaptation process - L., 1984.- P. 3-16.
2. Meyerson F.Z. The general mechanism of adaptation and the role of stress reactions in it, the main stages of the process // Physiology of adaptation processes - M., 1986.- 635 p.
3. Yurevits A.Zh., Averyanov V.S., Vinogradova O.V. etc. Adaptation to professional activity // Physiology labor activity(Fundamentals of modern physiology) / Ed. IN AND. Medvedev - SPb., 1993.- S. 209-284.
CHAPTER 3. PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF ADAPTATION
The development of the adaptation process by stages is ensured by a successive change in adaptation mechanisms. At the psychological level, the state that occurs when the interaction between a person and the environment is disturbed can be described using the following key concepts: stress, frustration and conflict. These states are closely related to each other and are able to successively replace each other. So, "difficulties in trying to achieve a certain goal due to prolonged dissatisfaction of needs can cause an increase in stress, which, in turn, will negatively affect the activities carried out and lead to frustration; further aggressive impulses or reactions generated by frustration, may come into conflict with the moral attitudes of the subject, the conflict will again cause an increase in stress, etc. " . A person can get out of this "vicious circle" by turning on the corresponding to each state psychological mechanisms adaptation.
The study of adaptation processes is closely related to the concept of emotional tension and stress. In his classic studies, H. Selye found that various physiological conditions caused by any cause (stressor), such as cold, intoxication, infection, trauma, etc., despite the variety of manifestations due to the specifics of the action of factors, have the same type of non-specific reaction of the body. Selye called the manifestations of this reaction a general adaptation syndrome, and he designated the special state of the body that arises with the term "stress" (tension).
F.B. Berezin draws an analogy between the main stages of stress described by Selye and periods of adaptation. The period of primary adaptation corresponds to an alarm reaction (alarm reaction), stable adaptation - the stage of resistance, and adaptive fatigue - the stage of exhaustion.
According to D.V. Kolesov, stress is one of the states of the adaptive cycle. Adaptation processes begin with fixing the differences between the current level of adaptability (resistance) of the organism and the level required in given specific conditions. Following this, a set of processes unfolds, ultimately leading to the achievement of the necessary level of adaptability by the body. The state of the organism based on these processes (at the height of perestroika) is called stress. The main content of the state of stress is the intensification of information processing in the central nervous system with a predominance of excitation processes, an increase in the intensity of metabolism, the mobilization of reserves, the restructuring of the ratios of the activity of various organs, systems, etc. A stressful state accompanies a transitional state from equilibrium ("symmetry") of an organism with some environmental factors to equilibrium ("symmetry") with other factors or a combination of factors.
The state of stress simultaneously activates two types of executive adaptation mechanisms - specific and non-specific. The endocrine glands often act as non-specific actuators. The peculiarity of their participation is that their function increases regardless of the specific features of the impact of the environment and depends only on the magnitude of the impact. Specific mechanisms are due to the characteristics of the stress factor. Depending on what level of the hierarchical structure of the adaptation process is affected, its various mechanisms are distinguished - from intracellular and humoral to socio-psychological. All types of stress are fundamentally similar to each other and have common physiological manifestations, regardless of the type of exposure. The resulting tension in all cases corresponds to the nature of the assessment (by the body, personality) of the degree and direction of the impact of the environment. This assessment is a derivative of two values: the absolute significance of the impact (situation, factor) and the level of adaptation of the individual to it.
The most adequate form of stress for the human body is, according to L.E. Panina, mental (emotional) stress. P. Fraisse called mental stress special kind recurring, chronic emotional situations in which adaptation disorders may appear. The very concept of mental stress was introduced by R. Lazarus, who believed that, in contrast to the physiological highly stereotyped stress response to harm, mental stress is a reaction mediated by threat assessment and protective processes. The differences between mental and systemic stress also lie in the sphere of differences between the physiology of the body and the functioning of the psyche. Among the many differences, it can be noted here that not only the present, but also the past and especially the future tense are relevant for the psyche (the representation of some events can be the strongest stress factor). On the contrary, the organism "exists" only in the present tense, and only current influences are relevant for it. A necessary condition for the occurrence of mental stress, thus, may be the perception of a real or hypothetical threat. R. Lazarus singled out two successive stages of cognitive activity processes in mastering a threatening or stressful situation: the primary assessment of how threatening the situation is, and the secondary assessment of the ability to cope with it. One of two strategies can be used for this: either direct action, accompanied by appropriate emotional activation, such as attack (anger), flight (fear), passivity (depression), or re-evaluation, exposing the situation less dangerous, in a more favorable light, and, in turn, lowering the level of fear-related emotional arousal. Lazarus labeled these cognitive processes of reappraisal as "denial" and "intellectualization."
The most intimate and obligate mechanism of mental stress, according to F.B. Berezina, is anxiety. The obligatory nature of this mechanism is determined by the connection between mental stress and threat, the feeling of which is the central element of anxiety and determines its significance as a signal of non-well-being and danger. The psychological significance of anxiety, starting with the works of S. Freud (S. Freud), is devoted to a vast number of sources. Anxiety was considered both as a form of adaptation of the body in conditions of acute and chronic stress, and as a protective and motivational mechanism comparable to pain. An increase in behavioral activity, a change in the nature of behavior, or the inclusion of intrapsychic adaptation mechanisms are associated with the onset of anxiety; at the same time, a decrease in the intensity of anxiety is perceived as evidence of the sufficiency and adequacy of the implemented forms of behavior, as the restoration of previously disturbed homeostasis. C. Mace defined mental homeostasis as a state in which the entire system of primary and acquired needs is satisfied. This gives reason to believe that mental stress arising from a change in the balance of the human-environment system is simultaneously accompanied by a violation of the satisfaction of actual needs, a mismatch of the needs themselves or the possibility of blocking their satisfaction in the future. Mental adaptation involves the fullest possible satisfaction of the actual needs of the individual while taking into account the requirements of the environment, which makes it difficult to implement motivated behavior. The tension of adaptive mechanisms in the blockade of motivated behavior is associated with the emergence of a state of frustration, which is one of the manifestations of mental stress and is the cause of anxiety. It should be noted that the very term "frustration" is understood ambiguously. They designate a situation that causes frustration, or conditions leading to its development, the results of the influence of such a situation on the subject, as well as the reaction of the subject in this situation. To avoid terminological inaccuracies, F.B. Berezin reasonably proposes to use the term "frustration" only to denote a mental state that occurs during the blockade of actual needs, and to refer to situations in which this state occurs and the factors that cause it, the term "frustration situation" or "frustration". -shaping influence". S. Rosenzweig distinguishes extrapunitive, intrapunitive and impunitive personality reactions in a frustrating situation, depending on its direction. Reactions also differ in the following types: with a fixation on an obstacle, with a fixation on self-defense, with a fixation on satisfying a need. According to F.E. Vasilyuk, the following behavioral reactions can be a consequence of frustration - motor excitation (aimless and disordered reactions), apathy, aggression and destruction, stereotypy (blind repetition of fixed behavior) and regression, which is understood either as an appeal to behavioral models that dominated in more early periods life of an individual, or as a primitivization of behavior. Frustrations that are essential to the adaptation process can be associated with a wide range of needs. A detailed consideration of individual needs and states of frustration during their blockade is not included in the task of this manual, we only note that in a real situation it is practically impossible to block one single need, since any frustrating influences inevitably affect the totality of needs, forming an interconnected complex. It is more appropriate to assess not the impact of frustration of individual needs or various types frustrating situations, and the total effect of successive frustrations, which F.B. Berezin calls frustration tension. Changes in the human-environment system will contribute to the growth of frustration tension to the extent that, as a result of these changes, the implementation of not just one need, but the whole complex of significant needs is difficult. An increase in frustration tension, in turn, is associated with an increase in the probability of mismatch in the system of needs. The emergence in this system of needs comparable in strength but opposite in direction makes it impossible to eliminate frustration in the process of motivated behavior, since regardless of the choice of strategy for this behavior, one of the competing needs is inevitably blocked. This type of frustration-walkie-talkie, according to F.B. Berezina being in modern conditions main, is an intrapsychic conflict. F.E. Vasilyuk draws a line between situations of frustration and conflict. Barriers in the implementation of some activity or prohibitions on its implementation, acting for the consciousness of the subject as something self-evident (not discussed), are essentially psychologically external barriers and give rise to a situation of frustration, not conflict, despite the fact that in this case they collide two seemingly internal forces. "The prohibition may cease to be self-evident, become internally problematic, and then the situation of frustration is transformed into conflict situation" .
B.I. Hassan considers two traditions to be the most developed in the field of conflict studies: psychoanalytic and socio-psychological. The psychoanalytic tradition goes back to the works of S. Freud, K. Jung, A. Adler; socio-psychological is represented, in particular, by K. Levin (K. Lewin), who created the typology of conflicts, and K. Boulding. The latter tradition also includes the studies of Russian psychologists A.A. Ershova, L.A. Petrovskaya, F.M. Borodkin and N.M. Koryak.
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Lecture 6
TOPIC: Human adaptation to environmental conditions
PLAN
1. The concept of human adaptation and acclimatization.
2. General laws of the adaptive process. adaptation mechanisms.
3. Conditions affecting adaptation.
4. Types of adaptations.
5. Influence of the natural environment on the morphological and physiological variability of the human body.
1. The concept of human adaptation and acclimatization
Under adaptation understand all types of innate and acquired adaptive activity, which are provided by certain physiological reactions that occur at the cellular, organ, system and organism levels.
In biology adaptation process- this is an adaptation of the structure and functions of the body to the conditions of existence. In the process of adaptation, signs and properties are formed that are most beneficial for living beings (or an entire population) and due to which the organism acquires the ability to exist in a particular habitat.
Adaptation is closely related to the evolution of organisms and is one of the essential factors of acclimatization. In economic practice, adaptation is more often associated with the resettlement of animal and plant organisms, with their transfer to other areas that go beyond the range of a given species. Stably acclimatized organisms are those that easily adapt to changed conditions, reproduce and give viable offspring in a new habitat.
Human adaptation is a complex socio-biological process, which is based on a change in the systems and functions of the body, as well as habitual behavior.
Human adaptation is a two-way process - a person not only adapts to a new ecological environment, but also adapts this environment to his needs and requirements, creates a life support system (housing, clothing, transport, infrastructure, food, etc.).
Acclimatization- the adaptation of a person (his entire body or individual systems and organs) to the new conditions of existence in which he ended up as a result of moving to a new place of residence. Acclimatization differs from adaptation in that the acquired new properties of the organism are not fixed genetically and in the event of a return to a former place of residence or moving to other conditions, they may be lost.
2. General laws of the adaptive process. Adaptation mechanisms
The phase course of adaptation reactions was first discovered by G. Selye (1938).
The first phase of adaptation is emergency develops at the very beginning of the action of both physiological and pathogenic factors. The first contact of the body with changed conditions or individual factors causes an orienting reaction, which can turn into generalized excitation in parallel. Reactions are uneconomical and often exceed the level required for given conditions. The number of changed indicators in the activities of various systems is unreasonably large. The control of functions by the nervous system and humoral factors is not sufficiently synchronized, the entire phase as a whole is of a exploratory nature and is presented as an attempt to adapt to a new factor or to new conditions, mainly due to organ and systemic mechanisms.
The emergency phase of adaptation mainly proceeds against the background of increased emotionality (often negative modality). Consequently, the mechanisms of this phase also include all the elements of the central nervous system, which provide precisely emotional shifts in the body. It can be expressed in different ways, depending not only on the individual characteristics of the organism, but also on the strength of irritating factors. Accordingly, it can be accompanied by a strongly or weakly expressed emotional component, on which, in turn, the mobilization of vegetative mechanisms depends.
The second phase (transitional) - persistent adaptation characterized by the fact that new coordination relationships are formed: enhanced efferent synthesis leads to the implementation of purposeful defensive reactions. The hormonal background changes due to the inclusion of the pituitary-adrenal system, the hormones of the adrenal cortex - "hormones of adaptation" - enhance their action. During this phase, the body's adaptive reactions gradually switch to a deeper tissue level. The transitional phase of persistent adaptation takes place only if the adaptogenic factor has sufficient intensity and duration of action. If it acts for a short time, then the emergency phase stops and the adaptation process is not formed. If the adaptogenic factor acts for a long time or repeatedly intermittently, this creates sufficient prerequisites for the formation of so-called "structural traces". The effects of factors are summarized. Metabolic changes deepen and increase, and the emergency phase of adaptation turns into a transitional, and then into a phase of stable adaptation.
Since the phase of persistent adaptation is associated with a constant tension of control mechanisms, restructuring of nervous and humoral relationships, and the formation of new functional systems, these processes can be depleted in certain cases. If we take into account that hormonal mechanisms play an important role in the development of adaptive processes, it becomes clear that they are the most depleted link.
Depletion of controlled mechanisms, on the one hand, and cellular mechanisms associated with increased energy costs, on the other hand, leads to maladjustment. The symptoms of this condition are functional changes in the activity of the body, reminiscent of those shifts that are observed in the phase of acute adaptation.
Auxiliary systems - respiration, blood circulation - come into a state of increased activity again, energy is wasted uneconomically. However, coordination between systems that provides a state adequate to the requirements of the external environment is carried out incompletely, which can lead to death.
Disadaptation occurs most often in those cases when the action of the factors that were the main stimulators of active changes in the body intensifies, and this becomes incompatible with life.
The basis of the third phase - sustainable adaptation or resistance is a change in the hormonal background due to the inclusion of the pituitary-adrenal system. Glucocorticoids and biologically active substances secreted in tissues mobilize structures, as a result of which tissues receive increased energy, plastic and protective support. It is actually an adaptation - an adaptation and is characterized by a new level of activity of tissue cellular membrane elements, rebuilt due to the temporary activation of auxiliary systems, which at the same time can function almost in the original mode, while tissue processes are activated, providing homeostasis, adequate to the new conditions of existence. The main features of this phase are:
1) mobilization of energy resources;
2) increased synthesis of structural and enzymatic proteins;
3) mobilization of immune systems.
In the third phase, the body acquires nonspecific and specific resistance - the resistance of the body.
Control mechanisms during the third phase are coordinated. Their manifestations are kept to a minimum. However, in general, this phase also requires intense control, which makes it impossible for it to continue indefinitely. Despite the cost-effectiveness - turning off "extra" reactions, and consequently, excessive energy consumption, switching the body's reactivity to a new level is not given to the body for free, but proceeds at a certain voltage of the control systems. This tension is commonly referred to as the "price of adaptation". Any activity in an organism adaptable in a given situation costs it much more than under normal conditions (it requires, for example, during physical exertion in mountain conditions, 25% more energy costs than normal).
It is impossible to consider this phase as something absolutely stable. During the life of an organism that is in the phase of stable adaptation, deviations (decrease in stability) and readaptation (restoration of stability) are possible. These fluctuations are associated both with the functional state of the body and with the action of various side factors.
3. Conditions affecting adaptation
G. Selye, who approached the problem of adaptation from new original positions, named the factors whose impact leads to adaptation, stressors. Their other name is extreme factors. Extreme can be not only individual effects on the body, but also changed conditions of existence in general, for example, the movement of a person from the south to the Far North, etc.). In relation to a person, adaptogenic factors can be natural and social, associated with labor activity.
natural factors. In the course of evolutionary development, living organisms have adapted to the action of a wide range of natural stimuli.
The action of factors causing the development of adaptive mechanisms is always complex, so we can talk about the action of a group of factors of a particular nature. So, for example, all living organisms in the course of evolution first of all adapted to the terrestrial conditions of existence: a certain barometric pressure and gravity, the level of cosmic and thermal radiation, a strictly defined gas composition of the surrounding atmosphere, etc.
It should be noted that natural factors act both on the animal body and on the human body. In both cases, these factors lead to a difference in the adapted mechanisms of a physiological nature. However, a person helps himself to adapt to the conditions of existence, using, in addition to his physiological reactions also various protective equipment that civilization gave him: clothes, houses, etc. This frees the body from the load on some adaptive systems and has a negative side for the body: it reduces the ability to adapt to natural factors. For example, to the cold.
social factors. In addition to the fact that the human body is mobile, the same natural influences as animal organisms, the social conditions of human life, factors. Associated with his work activity, gave rise to specific factors to which it is necessary to adapt. Their number grows with the development of civilization.
Thus, with the expansion of the habitat, conditions and influences that are completely new for the human body appear. For example, space flights bring new sets of influences. Among them is weightlessness - a state that is absolutely inadequate for any organism. Weightlessness is combined with hypodynamia, changes in the daily regime of life, etc.
People penetrating the bowels of the Earth or making deep sea dives are exposed to unusual high pressure, humidity, breathe air with a high content of oxygen.
Working in hot shops or cold climates creates factors that require an extended range of adaptation to extreme temperatures. Performing his official duties, a person is forced to adapt to noise, changes in illumination.
Pollution of the environment, the inclusion of a large number of synthetic products, alcoholic beverages, drug abuse, smoking - all this is an additional burden on the homeostatic systems of the body of a modern person.
In the course of the development of society, the production activity of people also changes. Physical labor is largely replaced by the work of machines and mechanisms. The person becomes the operator at the control panel. This relieves physical stress, but at the same time, new factors come to the fore, such as physical inactivity, stress, which adversely affect all body systems.
Another side of the social influences of mechanized labor is the growth of neuropsychic tension, which has replaced the physical one. It is associated with increased speed production processes, as well as with increased demands on the attention and concentration of a person.
4. Types of adaptations
The mechanisms of human adaptation are very different, therefore, in relation to human communities, there are: 1) biological, 2) social and 3) ethnic (as a special version of social) adaptation.
Human biological adaptation- an evolutionary adaptation of the human body to environmental conditions, expressed in a change in the external and internal features of an organ, function or the whole organism to changing environmental conditions. In the process of adapting the body to new conditions, two processes are distinguished - phenotypic or individual adaptation, which is more correctly called acclimatization and genotypic adaptation carried out by natural selection of traits useful for survival. With phenotypic adaptation, the body directly reacts to the new environment, which is expressed in phenotypic shifts, compensatory physiological changes that help the body maintain balance with the environment under new conditions. Upon transition to the previous conditions, the previous state of the phenotype is also restored, compensatory physiological changes disappear. With genotypic adaptation, deep morphological and physiological changes occur in the body, which are inherited and fixed in the genotype as new hereditary characteristics of populations, ethnic groups and races.
In the process of individual adaptation, a person creates reserves of memory and skills, forms vectors of behavior as a result of formation in the body based on the selective expression of genes of a bank of memorable structural traces.
Adaptive memory structural traces are of great biological importance. They protect a person from upcoming meetings with inadequate and dangerous environmental factors. The genetic program of the organism does not provide for a pre-formed adaptation, but the possibility of effective purposeful implementation of vitally necessary adaptive reactions under the influence of the environment. This provides an economical, environment-directed expenditure of energy and structural resources of the body, and also contributes to the formation of the phenotype. It should be considered advantageous for the conservation of the species that the results of phenotypic adaptation are not inherited.
Each new generation adapts anew to a wide range of sometimes completely new factors that require the development of new specialized responses.
Social adaptation- the process of personality formation, individual training and assimilation by him of values, norms, attitudes, patterns of behavior inherent in a given society, social community, group. Social adaptation is carried out both in the course of a targeted impact on a person in the education system, and under the influence of a wide range of other influencing factors (family and extra-family communication, art, the media, etc.). The expansion and deepening of the social adaptation of the individual occurs in three main areas: activity, communication, self-awareness. In the field of activity, both the expansion of the types of the latter with which a person is associated, and the orientation in the system of each type of activity, i.e., the allocation of the main thing in it, its comprehension, etc., is carried out. content, deepening the knowledge of other people, developing communication skills. In the sphere of self-awareness, the formation of the image of one's own "I" as an active subject of activity, understanding one's social belonging, social role, the formation of self-esteem, etc. childhood and the period of study), labor (conditional boundaries - the period of maturity of a person, his active participation in work) and post-labor, which refers to the period of a person's life, coinciding, as a rule, with retirement age.
The impact of each of these institutions is determined by the system of social relations that exist in society. The presence of natural impacts makes the problem of “the effects of social adaptation” relevant in practical terms, i.e. the nature and depth of this process, its effectiveness, in particular, overcoming negative influences leading to deviant behavior, antisocial influences.
Ethnic adaptation- adaptation of ethnic groups (communities) to the natural and socio-cultural environment of their habitats. The study of this process and the problems associated with it is mainly the task of ethnic ecology. In the socio-cultural adaptation of ethnic groups, there is a lot of peculiarity, due to linguistic, cultural, political, economic and other parameters of the environment. This is most clearly manifested in the ethnic adaptation of immigrant groups in their countries of settlement, for example, in the USA, Canada, Argentina, etc. At present, problems have arisen in the readaptation of representatives of a single ethnic group among an ethnically homogeneous population, but with a different culture. Such, for example, are Germans from the former USSR who move to live in Germany, or Russians from Central Asia and Kazakhstan returning to Russia. At the same time, it is customary to single out adaptation associated with employment (getting a job), as well as linguistic and cultural adaptation, called "acculturation".
The normal course of ethnic adaptation can be greatly complicated and delayed by the manifestation of nationalism and racism in the form of discrimination, segregation, etc. A sharp change in the habitat can lead to disadaptation.
5. Influence of the natural environment on the morphophysiological variability of the human body
Despite the “neutralization” or mitigation of the influence of many environmental factors on the body, the connection between a person and the environment still exists, that is, the morphological and functional characteristics that formed in the initial period of the existence of the human race have still been preserved.
The effect of environmental factors is most clearly manifested on the human body in the morphological and functional differences of residents of different climatic and geographical zones: mass, body surface area, chest structure, body proportions. Behind outside no less pronounced differences in the structure of proteins, isoenzymes, tissues, and the genetic apparatus of cells are hidden. Features of the structure of the body, the flow of energy processes are determined mainly by the temperature regime of the environment, nutrition; mineral exchange - geochemical situation. This is especially pronounced among the indigenous inhabitants of the North (Yakuts, Chukchi, Eskimos), the main metabolism is increased by 13–16% compared to visitors. High level fats in food, their increased content in blood serum with relatively high ability to utilization are one of the conditions that ensure an increase in energy metabolism in a cold climate. An increase in heat production is one of the main adaptive reactions to cold.
The Eskimos living on the Hudson Bay Islands, compared with Caucasian Americans, have more tissue filling with blood and a higher percentage of adipose tissue in the body, that is, higher thermal insulation properties fabrics.
They have an increase in homeopoiesis and a weakening of the ability of blood vessels to constrict. Blood pressure in most Arctic populations is lower than in temperate populations. Differences are noted and in the structure of the body the chest index and weight-to-height ratio are increased, mesomorphic features in body proportions are enhanced, the percentage of individuals with a muscular body type is higher.
A similar morphofunctional complex, characterized by an increase in the size of the chest, heat production, blood flow velocity and hematopoietic activity, is observed in high mountains in conditions of oxygen deficiency and a decrease in ambient temperature. Indigenous inhabitants of the highlands have higher pulmonary ventilation, oxygen capacity of the blood, hemoglobin and myoglobin levels, peripheral blood flow, the number and size of capillaries, and lower blood pressure.
The population of tropical latitudes is characterized by an elongation of the body shape and an increase in the relative surface of evaporation, an increase in the number of sweat glands, and, consequently, the intensity of sweating. Specific regulation of water-salt metabolism, increased blood pressure, decreased metabolic rate, achieved by reducing body weight, reducing the synthesis of endogenous fats and reducing the concentration of ATP.
Features of the tropical morphofunctional complex are also characteristic of the population of tropical deserts.
In the indigenous inhabitants of the continental zone of Siberia, the increase in heat production is combined with an increase in the thickness of the fat layer. Among them, the percentage of people with a picnic physique with brachymorphic body proportions is increased.
The population of the temperate zone, in many morphological and physiological characteristics, occupies an intermediate position between the arctic and tropical groups.
All these features characterize the specifics of the features inherent in specific ecological niches.
According to modern ideas, both the external environment and heredity take an equal part in the formation of the constitution. The main features of the constitution are hereditarily determined - the longitudinal dimensions of the body and the dominant type of metabolism, the latter being inherited only if two or three generations of the family constantly lived in the same area. Combinations of the main features make it possible to distinguish three or four basic constitutional types. A secondary feature of constitutions (transverse dimensions) is determined by the conditions of a person's life, being realized in the features of his personality. It is most closely related to the sex, age, profession of the individual, as well as the influence of the environment.
Questions for conversation
1. Formulate the concept of human adaptation and acclimatization.
2. What are the general patterns of the adaptive process?
3. Describe the mechanisms of adaptation.
4. What types of adaptations do you know?
5. Significance and mechanism of human biological adaptation.
6. What is the essence of human social adaptation?
7. What causes the ethnic adaptation of a person?
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