The human body displays various reactions that are characterized by opposing tendencies. Such tendencies affect flight and fight reactions, feeling hungry, and nerve firing among many other body processes. This paper will use psychological and physical mechanisms to explain how various opposing processes apply to the automatic nervous system, color vision, drug use and nerve firing.
Automatic Nervous System
When it comes to the automatic nervous system, it’s a psychological process where the sympathetic nervous system arouses the body to respond to a stressor for example being chased by a wild dog. While the sympathetic nervous system works by arousing the body, the parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, calms it after danger. When a person faces danger, it is the responsibility of the automatic nervous system to produce adrenaline and norepinephrine into the bloodstream that are responsible for fight and flight. These nervous systems primarily calm the body to return to the normal estate after a sympathetic nervous system arouses the body. Physiologically, the parasympathetic nervous system calms, counteracts the sympathetic nervous system and assists the body to return back to normal after a fight or flight arousal.
Color Vision
According to the opponent process theory by Ewald Hering, cone photoreceptors are connected together with opposing colors. The opposing colors include blue/yellow, red/green and black/white. Through the opponent process theory, the main goal of the color vision is to show the opposing processing. This is a physiological process where the light hit the back of an organism eye where light or darkness is detected. The light striking comes that are found at the back of the eye detects the color that is being projected. When it comes to vision, cells oppose one another for some colors. For example, when a person is exposed to color red, they experience an image of the opponent color that is green. Staring at color blue cause a person to see an after image of color yellow. In this case, opposite colors allow color vision that includes red-green, yellow-blue among others.
Drugs
Drug dependence is a psychological process where a person takes a drug to feel good. Drug users become dependent on drugs in that they have to use them for survival. With a regular use of some drugs, people get to tolerance levels where they require more drugs to attain a euphoric feeling. In some cases, people have experienced much pain while others have died because of the withdrawal symptoms. Drugs give an intense pleasure to the user despite the fact that they may also cause pain. With a long time use of drugs, the initial high or euphoria gets weaker and weaker and negative feeling sets in. The body, in this case, compensates for a euphoric producing drug by bring the body back to the dysphonia state.
Nerve Firing
Nerve firing is a physiological process where the excitatory neurotransmitters provoke the nerves to release endorphins. In various ways, nerve firing display an opposing action when actions that is potential occurs. When endorphins are released, they cause signal throughout the body. Since neurons have a little negative charge, sodium ions are let in through the ion channels. When such happens, neurons turn positive and then depolarizes. This period is known as the refractory period when the actual action cannot occur again. The work of the inhibiting neurotransmitters, in this case, is to inhibit the firing of the neurons.
