Lecture Exam 3 Flashcards
Functional Characteristics of Muscle
Contractility, Excitability, Extensibility, Elasticity
* Major function: to be excited and generate force.
Contractility
The ability to shorten and generate force.
Excitability
The ability to receive and respond to stimuli (electrical currents).
Extensibility
The ability to be stretched or extended.
Elasticity
The ability to recoil and resume the original resting length.
Types of Muscle Tissue
Skeletal, Smooth, and Cardiac
Types of Muscle Tissue Differ In:
Structure, location, function, and how they are activate.d
Skeletal Muscle
(Attached to skeleton): Voluntary; multiple nuclei along cell membrane; body movements
- Maintain posture, stabilize joints, and generate heat
Smooth Muscle
Involuntary; walls of hollow organs: moves substances through them (ex: uterus, blood vessels)
- Help maintain blood pressure
- Squeezes or propels substances (food, feces) through organs
Cardiac Muscle
Involuntary: single nucleus in middle; branched and striated: heart –> pumps blood
Muscle as Organs
Each names muscle is a discrete organ: muscle, tissue, blood vessels, nerve fibers, and connective tissue.
(Ex: biceps is an organ)
Muscle is covered by:
Connective tissue at various levels.
- Three layers at three levels: separate fibers, and compartmentalize individual muscles or groups of muscles
Epimysium
(Outside muscle); dense tissue surrounds the entire muscle: made of collagen
Perimysium
Fibrous tissue surrounds bundles of muscle fibers: each bundle is fascicle.
Endomysium
Surrounding each muscle fiber: reticular connective tissue