initial values law

n. In physiology, the idea that the existing level of a physiological system or variable will have an effect on the response produced by any input to the system. Thus if a person has just finished jogging and his or her heart is beating rapidly and he/she is then scared by a falling meteor, his/her pulse rate will increase less than if he/she had been resting on a park bench and had a low pulse rate before the meteor scared him/her.