Muscles Flashcards
What is a muscle?
pieces of soft tissue throughout the human body
What is the dominant tissue throughout the heart and walls of other hollow organs?
muscle
What moves and supports body organs?
muscle
How much of the body mass does muscle form?
nearly half
How many muscles are there in the human body?
over 600
what are the four properties of muscle?
excitability
contractility
elasticity
extensibility
What is electrical excitability?
The ability to respond to stimuli from neurotransmitters
What are neurotransmitters?
chemicals by which neurons translate
What can stimulation from neurotransmitters to muscles eclicit?
an action potential or nerve impulse
What is contractibility?
The ability of a muscle to shorten in response to an action potential
What is extensibility?
The ability of a muscle to stretch without injury
What is elasticity?
The ability of a muscle to recover its original shape after contracting or extending
What are the 7 functions of the muscular system?
- body movements
- stabilizing joints
- maintaining body posture
- storing substances
- movement of substances
- thermogenesis
- communication
What is thermogenesis?
The production of heat as a by-product of contraction
How does the muscular system allow body movements?
by contracting and releasing around joints
What substances does the muscle move around the body? name 3
- blood
- air
- food
What are the three types of muscle?
- cardiac muscle
- Skeletal muscle
- smooth muscle
Where is cardiac muscle found?
only in the heart
What forms the bulk of the heart wall (myocardium)?
cardiac muscle
What does the cardiac muscle do?
contracts rhythmically and continuously to provide the pumping action necessary for life
What other muscle type is cardiac muscle similar to in structure?
skeletal muscle
What are the two names for a cardiac muscle cell?
- cardiac muscle fibre
- cardiomyocyte
What is the structure of cardiac muscle?
does not taper but forms intercalated discs
What is a syncytium?
a unit of combined cardiac muscle cells
What kind of mitochondria does cardiac muscle have? why?
large mitochondria for a constant supply of energy
What are smooth muscles?
unstriated involuntary muscles found in internal organs
Where are smooth muscles found? (3)
internal organs
blood vessels
the intrinsic muscle of the eye
What do smooth muscles enable? give an example
involuntary visceral contraction such as vasoconstriction
Do smooth muscles have striations or T-tubules?
no
How are smooth muscles organised?
loosely in the sarcoplasmic reticulum
How are the thick and thin filaments in smooth muscle arranged? what happens when they contract?
they are arranged differently and when contracted pull the cell into a ball
which muscle cells can be single unit or multi unit?
smooth muscle cells