Physiotherapy Specialist Complete Review Guide 2026–2027

4. Example: if resorption exceeds formation over time, bone tissue is lost. This compares remodeling processes; it does not establish a diagnosis or an exercise load. Source: NCI SEER, Structure of Bone Tissue, opening cell-role paragraphs.
5. Afferent signals travel toward the CNS; efferent signals travel from it. One skeletal-muscle motor unit comprises one alpha motor neuron and the muscle fibers it supplies. Source: NCI SEER, The Nervous System, Peripheral Nervous System. UTHealth Neuroscience Online, §1.6 and §1.8.
6. Muscle spindles report muscle length and its change; Golgi tendon organs report force/load. These are complementary proprioceptive signals. Source: UTHealth Neuroscience Online, §1.6 and §1.8.
7. Example: turning the head chiefly engages semicircular-canal rotation signals; linear head movement and orientation to gravity involve the utricle and saccule. Balance also uses vision and body sensation. Source: NIDCD, Balance Disorders, How does my body keep its balance?, canal and otolithic-organ paragraphs.
8. Inspiration: the diaphragm contracts downward, enlarging the chest. Quiet healthy expiration mainly follows relaxation. At alveoli, oxygen moves into blood and carbon dioxide moves into alveolar air. Source: NHLBI, What Breathing Does for the Body, Breathing in/Gas exchange/Breathing out.
9. The right heart sends oxygen-poor blood through pulmonary arteries to the lungs; pulmonary veins return oxygen-rich blood to the left heart. Source: NHLBI, How Blood Flows, Adding oxygen to blood.
10. Example: after the SA-node signal activates the atria, a brief AV-node delay allows ventricular filling before ventricular contraction. Electrical timing supports effective pumping. Source: NHLBI, How the Heart Beats, Electrical activity.
11. Hormones act on cells with matching receptors. Negative feedback opposes a disturbance in a regulated variable, helping maintain homeostasis. Source: NCI SEER, Characteristics of Hormones, Mechanism/Control of Hormone Action.
12. High blood glucose stimulates pancreatic beta cells to release insulin; low glucose stimulates alpha cells to release glucagon. Keep the cell, stimulus and hormone paired. Source: NCI SEER, Pancreas—Islets of Langerhans, alpha/beta-cell paragraph.
13. Example: low blood calcium stimulates PTH secretion, which raises calcium. A response can increase a substance and still be negative feedback because it opposes the initial fall. Source: NCI SEER, Thyroid & Parathyroid Glands, Parathyroid Gland, secretion/effect paragraph. NCI SEER, Characteristics of Hormones, Mechanism/Control of Hormone Action.

Common mistakes in this chapter

• ✕ Relaxation is not energy-free: calcium reuptake into the sarcoplasmic reticulum uses ATP. Source: NISMAT, Muscle Physiology Primer, motor end plate/SR release and Muscle Contraction, ATP-dependent calcium return.
• ✕ Do not reverse tendon and ligament attachments, or confuse synovial membrane with the cartilage covering bone. Source: Johns Hopkins, Anatomy of a Joint, Cartilage/Synovial membrane/Ligaments/Tendons bullets.
• ✕ A motor unit is not every motor neuron supplying a whole muscle; spindle length feedback is not tendon-organ force feedback. Source: UTHealth Neuroscience Online, §1.6 and §1.8.
• ✕ “Artery” does not always mean oxygen-rich: pulmonary arteries carry oxygen-poor blood toward the lungs. Source: NHLBI, How Blood Flows, Adding oxygen to blood.
• ✕ “Negative” describes opposition to the disturbance, not an instruction that every hormone must lower every measured value. Source: NCI SEER, Characteristics of Hormones, Mechanism/Control of Hormone Action. NCI SEER, Thyroid & Parathyroid Glands, Parathyroid Gland, secretion/effect paragraph.