Thoracic cavity:The chest or thorax; contains the heart, lungs, and their associated structures, as well as the esophagus and several glands Additionally, the abdomen is divided into quadrants and regions. The mid-sagittal plane and a transverse plane intersect at an imaginary axis passing through the body at the navel (belly button). This axis divides the abdomen into quadrants (four sections). Putting an imaginary cross on the abdomen creates the right upper quadrant, left upper quadrant, right lower quadrant, and left lower quadrant. Physicians take note of these areas when a patient describes symptoms of abdominal pain. Then, every time the term comes up in class or in your textbook, add to the running list of notes on that concept. You’ll have references to metabolism at each point it comes up and you’ll be able to analyze its influences across different body systems. Form a study group If you’re a visual learner, you may get more out of anatomy and physiology by seeing the real thing in the flesh. If you’re an aural learner, you may learn best in the classroom as the teacher lectures. If you’re a reading and writing kind of learner, you’ll get the most out of our first tip to write stuff down. And if you’re a kinesthetic learner, there’s nothing like touching or holding to commit something to memory. Get a grip on Greek and Latin

This chapter is about your life as an organism. As Chapter 1 explains, organism is the fifth of five levels of organization in living things. Although the word organism has many possible definitions, for the purposes of this chapter, an organism is a living unit that metabolizes and maintains its own existence . Anatomy & Physiology All-in-One For Dummies is your go-to guide for developing a deep understanding of the parts of the human body and how it works. You’ll learn the body's structures and discover how they function with expert help from the book's easy-to-use teaching features. You can even go online to access interactive chapter quizzes to help you absorb the material. In the 1970s, computer technology took off, taking medical imaging technology with it. Digital imaging techniques began to be applied to convert multiple flat-slice images into one three-dimensional image. The first technology of this sort was called computed axial tomography (commonly called a CAT or CT scan), in which multiple X-ray images are combined into cross-sectional pictures of structures inside the body. These detailed and extensive images were unlike anything that had been available to anatomists before. CT technology is still an active area of development. Major technology manufacturers maintain robust product lines of CT instruments and accoutrements for use in clinics and clinical research. Ventral cavity:Anterior portion of the torso; divided by the diaphragm into the thoracic cavity and abdominopelvic cavity Phylum Chordata: Animals that have a number of structures in common, particularly the notochord, a rodlike structure that forms the body’s supporting axis.

The test is done and the grades are in. So there was a really tough question or two on the test and you blew it big-time? It’s hardly a missed opportunity — this is where rolling with the punches really pays off. Scientists try to create terminology that’s precise and easy to understand by developing it systematically. That is, they create new words by putting together existing and known elements. They use certain syllables or word fragments over and over to build new terms. With a little help from this book, you’ll soon start to recognize some of these fragments. Then you can put the meanings of different fragments together and accurately guess the meaning of a term you’ve never seen before, just as you can understand a sentence you’ve never read before. Table 1-1 gets you started, listing some word fragments related to the organ systems we cover in this book. /Table 0101a /Table 0101b

Medical and crime shows have made body cavities all too familiar, and anatomically speaking, these spaces are very important, providing housing and protection for vital organs. The following list identifies the cavities and subcavities of the human body:Clinical medicine isn’t the subject of this book. Many of the chapters do contain pathophysiology sections, but those sections have no relevant information on patient care. We chose the conditions that we briefly sketch in those sections to demonstrate some characteristic of the system under discussion, especially its interaction with other systems. However, we’re guessing that a large proportion of readers are using this book to supplement instructional material in career training for a clinical environment, so the information throughout the book is slightly slanted in that direction. Anatomy, gross and otherwise An organ is a part of the body that performs a specialized physiological function. For example, the stomach is an organ that has the specific physiological function of breaking down food. By definition, an organ is made up of at least two different tissue types; many organs contain tissues of all four types. Although we can name and describe all four tissue types that make up all organs, as we do in the preceding section, listing all the organs in the body wouldn’t be so easy.

This is a simple idea that far too few students practice regularly. Don’t stop at underlining and highlighting important material in your textbooks and study guides: Write it down. Or type it up. Whatever you do, don’t just regurgitate it exactly as presented in the material you’re studying. Ultrasound imaging technology uses the echoes of sound waves sent into the body to generate a signal that a computer turns into a real-time image of anatomy and physiology. Ultrasound can also produce audible sounds, so the anatomist or physiologist can, for example, watch the pulsations of an artery while hearing the sound of the blood flowing through it. Although all these technologies are considered noninvasive, ultrasound is the least invasive of all, and so is used more freely, especially in sensitive situations like pregnancy. Simply put, the mnemonic is the thing you commit to memory as a means for remembering the more technical thing for which it stands. Human pathophysiology is the science of human anatomy and physiology gone wrong. (The prefix path- is Greek for suffering.) It’s the interface of human biology and medical science. Clinical medicine is the application of medical science to alleviate an anatomical or physiological problem in an individual human. Medical and crime shows have made body cavities all too familiar, and anatomically speaking, these spaces are very important, providing housing and protection for vital organs. The following list identifies the cavities of the human body.If you’re talking anatomy and physiology, you’re talking about the human body and its organs. The 11 systems in the following table provide the means for every human activity — from breathing to eating to moving to reproducing: System remember.eps Anatomical planes can pass through the body at any angle. The planes are arbitrary for the convenience of anatomists. Don’t expect the structures of the body, and especially the joints, to line up or move along the standard planes and axes. Mapping out your regions

Abdominal cavity:Contains the stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, small intestines, and most of the large intestine Some biologists specialize in the anatomy and physiology of animals at various hierarchical levels (horses, fish, frogs) or particular organs (mammalian circulatory systems, olfaction in fish, insect hormones). Some focus solely on humans, others concentrate on other species, and still others examine the areas of overlap between humans and other animal species. These various areas of study contribute to human knowledge of biology in general and of clinical medicine in particular. The work of anatomists contributes to medical advances, such as improved surgical techniques and the development of bioengineered prostheses. It’s the best resource for helping you make anatomy and physiology your minion, with memorization tactics, test-prep suggestions, and hundreds of practice tests. Following are ten key things you can start doing today to ensure success not only in anatomy and physiology but in any number of other classes. Write down important stuff in your own words Abdominal cavity: Contains the stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, small intestines, and most of the large intestineIf you’ve taken geometry, you know that a plane is a flat surface and that a straight line can run between two points on that flat surface. Geometric planes can be positioned at any angle. In anatomy, usually three planes separate the body into sections. Figure 1-2 shows you what each plane looks like. The reason for separating the body with imaginary lines — or by making actual cuts referred to as sections — is so that you know which half or portion of the body or organ is being discussed. The anatomical planes are as follows: