The course primary objective is to acquaint the student with the mechanisms by which the human body reaches and maintains the homeostasis of its internal environment at the molecular, cellular and tissular levels, notwithstanding the variability of the external environment. To this end the student will have to learn: 1) the biophysical principles, as well as the electrophysiological and functional mechanisms, underlying the transport and communication systems of biological membranes and the contractility; 2) the basic neurobiological and psychophysiological processes related to behaviour and to the cognitive and emotional interactions between the subject and his environment; 3) the mechanisms and interrelationships of all vegetative functions, by understanding the integrated functioning of different organs and organ systems of the body, in the presence of changes in the main physiological variables and during physical exercise.