The interaction of psychological and physiological homeostatic drives and role of general control principles in the regulation of physiological systems, exercise and the fatigue process – The Integrative Governor theory

Abstract

Either central (brain) or peripheral (body physiological system) control mechanisms, or a combination of these, have been championed in the last few decades in the field of Exercise Sciences as how physiological activity and fatigue processes are regulated. In this review, we suggest that the concept of 'central' or 'peripheral' mechanisms are both artificial constructs that have 'straight-jacketed' research in the field, and rather that competition between psychological and physiological homeostatic drives is central to the regulation of both, and that governing principles, rather than distinct physical processes, underpin all physical system and exercise regulation. As part of the Integrative Governor theory we develop in this review, we suggest that both psychological and physiological drives and requirements are underpinned by homeostatic principles, and that regulation of the relative activity of each is by dynamic negative feedback activity, as the fundamental general operational controller. Because of this competitive, dynamic interplay, we propose that the activity in all systems will oscillate, that these oscillations create information, and comparison of this oscillatory information with either prior information, current activity, or activity templates create efferent responses that change the activity in the different systems in a similarly dynamic manner. Changes in a particular system are always the result of perturbations occurring outside the system itself, the behavioural causative 'history' of this external activity will be evident in the pattern of the oscillations, and awareness of change occurs as a result of unexpected rather than planned change in physiological activity or psychological state.

Changes of Differential Urinary Metabolites after High-Intensive Training in Teenage Football Players

“…These results can be summarized as three types of metabolism: protein metabolism, tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolism, and lipid metabolism. This result is similar to that of Radom-Aizik et al [27] In high-intensity training, sugar and glycogen metabolism is the main energy sources for body movement, but with the extension of exercise time, some variable proteins and amino acids are also involved in energy metabolism to [1]. Some studies have found that the urinary levels of histidine and glycine were decreased after exercise in weightlifters, and the levels of histidine and tyrosine in middle-and long-distance runners were also decreased [28].…”

“…Exercise-induced fatigue refers to the inability of the body to maintain the predetermined exercise intensity, causing a temporary decline of exercise capacity. But, after appropriate rest and adjustment, the body can return to the original exercise capacity [1]. The improvement of an athlete's training level is the virtuous circle of "fatigue-recovery."…”

An Analysis of Variability in Power Output During Indoor and Outdoor Cycling Time Trials

“…Accommodation of these varying internal and external demands directly affect performance (Foster et al 1994) with the adopted pacing strategy representing a behavioural expression of continuous decision making (Smits et al 2014). When examined at increased resolution, these fluctuations may illustrate complex intrinsic control strategies to modulate work rate (Tucker et al 2006) and reflect multiple levels of regulation to achieve homeostatic control during a task (Lambert et al 2005;St Clair Gibson et al 2006;St Clair Gibson et al 2018). Given the additional external demands associated with performance cycling outdoors, it is interesting that mean power data is comparable indoors and outdoors over shorter duration 6-s sprints (Gardner et al 2007), 4-min time-trials (Bouillod et al 2017) and longer duration 40-km time-trials despite a ~ 6% reduction in performance time outdoors (Smith et al 2001).…”

“…Outdoor cycling performance time can be optimized by adopting a strategy that varies power output by 5-10% (Swain, 1997), increasing power during uphill or windy sections and reducing during downhill or less-windy sections (Swain 1997;Atkinson and Brunskill 2000;Abbiss and Laursen 2008). However, the less predictable attentional demands of the outdoor environment which remain in constant flux and require continual updates, conscious or otherwise, may also impact performance (St Clair Gibson et al 2018). Variation in power output has been described in professional level time-trials conducted outdoors (Abbiss et al 2010), and low frequency fluctuations in power output have been observed during indoor flat and simulated hilly conditions (Terblanche et 4 al.…”

“…Comparison of time-series mechanical power data at increased resolution can offer further insight into the effects of environmental constraints on centrally controlled regulation of exercise intensity and subsequent behavioural outcomes, to different environments. We hypothesized that cycling in the outdoor environment might change (at some organisational level) the pattern of the oscillations in power output across time (St Clair Gibson et al 2018). This may, in turn, allow athletes to better understand the necessity of environmental specificity when translating indoor performance to the outdoors.…”