page_title: Negative feedback
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Negative feedback / Overview
caption_attribution_description: Caption: In a negative feedback loop, a stimulus—a deviation from a set point—is resisted through a physiological process that returns the body to homeostasis. (a) A negative feedback loop has four basic parts. (b) Body temperature is regulated by negative feedback. Speficic URL: https://cnx.org/contents/FPtK1zmh@8.108:8Q_5pQQo@4/Homeostasis
context_page_description: Negative feedback occurs when some function of the output of a system, process, or mechanism is fed back in a manner that tends to reduce the fluctuations in the output, whether caused by changes in the input or by other disturbances.
  Whereas positive feedback tends to lead to instability via exponential growth, oscillation or chaotic behavior, negative feedback generally promotes stability. Negative feedback tends to promote a settling to equilibrium, and reduces the effects of perturbations. Negative feedback loops in which just the right amount of correction is applied with optimum timing can be very stable, accurate, and responsive.
  Negative feedback is widely used in mechanical and electronic engineering, and also within living organisms, and can be seen in many other fields from chemistry and economics to physical systems such as the climate. General negative feedback systems are studied in control systems engineering.
  Negative feedback loops also play an integral role in maintaining the atmospheric balance in various systems on Earth. One such feedback system is the interaction between solar radiation, cloud cover, and planet temperature.
context_section_description: In many physical and biological systems, qualitatively different influences can oppose each other. For example, in biochemistry, one set of chemicals drives the system in a given direction, whereas another set of chemicals drives it in an opposing direction. If one or both of these opposing influences are non-linear, equilibrium point(s) result.
  In biology, this process (in general, biochemical) is often referred to as homeostasis; whereas in mechanics, the more common term is equilibrium.
  In engineering, mathematics and the physical, and biological sciences, common terms for the points around which the system gravitates include: attractors, stable states, eigenstates/eigenfunctions, equilibrium points, and setpoints.
  In control theory, negative refers to the sign of the multiplier in mathematical models for feedback. In delta notation, −Δoutput is added to or mixed into the input. In multivariate systems, vectors help to illustrate how several influences can both partially complement and partially oppose each other.
  Some authors, in particular with respect to modelling business systems, use negative to refer to the reduction in difference between the desired and actual behavior of a system. In a psychology context, on the other hand, negative refers to the valence of the feedback – attractive versus aversive, or praise versus criticism.
  In contrast, positive feedback is feedback in which the system responds so as to increase the magnitude of any particular perturbation, resulting in amplification of the original signal instead of stabilization. Any system in which there is positive feedback together with a gain greater than one will result in a runaway situation. Both positive and negative feedback require a feedback loop to operate.
  However, negative feedback systems can still be subject to oscillations. This is caused by a phase shift around any loop. Due to these phase shifts the feedback signal of some frequencies can ultimately become in phase with the input signal and thus turn into positive feedback, creating a runaway condition. Even before the point where the phase shift becomes 180 degrees, stability of the negative feedback loop will become compromised, leading to increasing under- and overshoot following a disturbance. This problem is often dealt with by attenuating or changing the phase of the problematic frequencies in a design step called compensation. Unless the system naturally has sufficient damping, many negative feedback systems have low pass filters or dampers fitted.
caption: Feedback loops in the human body
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