Neuromotor L1 Flashcards
What does the neuromotor system?
What are upper MNs (Betz cells motor cortex)?
Anterior to central sulcus
Layer 5 cells
Project to spinal cord
What are Acetylcholine receptors?
Open for positive ions to flow in –> generate muscle contraction (AP)
What are alpha-motor neurons?
Cell body + spindly dendrites
What does the overview of neuromotor system?
____ motor neurons are the final output neuron.
Alpha
What are 4 characteristics of motor neurons which are the final output neuron?
- Biggest neuron is ventral horn
- Can inhibit it –> hyperpolarise
- Can excite it –> depolarise
- Can change firing output
What are the 2 types of motor neurons in the ventral horn of the spinal cord?
- Alpha
- Gamma
How can you introduce Learning and memory, voluntary and modifying movement?
- Learnt after birth
- Eg. pre-mature babies –> poor visual tracking, fine motor skills take a while get developed
What are 11 functions of the skeletal muscle (effector organ)?
- Movement (includes Vocalization- Laryneal muscles and Respiration- Diaphragm)
- Maintains Posture- Brainstem nuclei
- Stabilizes Joints
- Generates Heat
- Skinner person feels cold more (hard to generate heat)
- Bigger person can generate more heat (more mitochondria to muscles, muscles are hypertrophied
- Helps with peripheral (Venous return)
- Lymphatic drainage- Removing ECF and infections to lymphatic nodes
- One way valves –> muscles contract to pump
- Vision
- Reproduction
- Digestion
- Excretion
What are the 4 levels of organisation in the structure of muscle?
- Whole muscle (organ)
- Muscle fibre (multi-nucleated Muscle cell - composed of many myofibrils
- Cytoskeletal components of a Myofibrils
- Protein components of myofibrils myosin (thick filaments) actin (Thin filaments), troponin Tropomyosin.
What are the 4 features of the neuromuscular synapse (junction)?
- Biggest chemical Synapse in the body (25 um)
- Excitable synapse
- Simple
- Can undergo Re-innervation if damaged (close by)
What are ligand binding channels?
- Ach allows channels to open up
- Positive ions flow through/in
- Membrane potential depolarises
- One voltage gated Na+ channels
- Membrane potential rises even further
- Get to threshold Muscle contraction
What type of contractions do slow twitch fibres cause?
Graded muscle contractions
What type of contractions do fast twitch fibres cause?
If doesn’t get to threshold wont get muscle contraction
When Ach (neurotransmitter) is released and binds, what happens?
If it doesn’t get cleaned up or destroyed, it can go into the Na+ channels and keep activating it
Eg. drugs that inhibition of Ach breakdown
Why do you need to to break down Ach?
- Need to be able to recycle it –> break down and pumped out again
- Limiting action of the neurotransmitter
- In terms glutamate and GABA –> Remove them from synaptic gap
- Glial cells which have pumps
- If no glial cells = excitotoxicity (glutamate can cause increase Ca++ and neurons can dye)
- Need to regulate the life of the trransmitter before pre and post synapse
What does it look like when Alpha motor neuron connect with skeletal muscle to from the neuromuscular synapse?
What are 9 steps of the ___?
- Action potential arrives at motor nerve terminal
- AP triggers the opening Of VGCCs (P/Q Type Next to Active zones) entry of Ca2+
- Ca2+ dependant release by exocytosis Of acetylcholine (ACh) from synaptic vesicles
- ACh traverses the synaptic cleft To bind to its receptor a ligand gated Ion channel (AChRs).
- This binding bring about the opening of this ion channel to cause a large movement of Na+ in and a small movement of K+ out of the Muscle cell.
- The result is an endplate Potential – (Depolarization). This sets up a local Current flow between the depolarized Post-synaptic membrane and adjacent membrane of muscle.
- This local current flow opens voltage gated Na+ channels in the adjacent memb.
- The resulting entry of Na+ causes the Resting membrane potential to rise from ~ -70 mV to -60mV . This triggers the generation of a muscle action potential
- ACh is subsequently destroyed by Acetylcholinesterase an enzyme located in the synaptic cleft,
What happens when Muscle Action Potential is generated that in turn will trigger Muscle Contraction?
What are the 8 steps of the Excitation Contraction Coupling of Skeletal Muscle?
- Alpha MN Action Potential (AP) to Motor Nerve terminal
- Ca++ enters nerve terminal -> synaptic vesicles to release Acetylcholine.
- Acetylcholine binds to receptors sets up a Muscle AP
- Muscle AP is propagated across the muscle surface and down the T tubules
- Muscle AP triggers Ca++ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum
- Ca++ in the cytoplasm is free to interact with troponin on actin filaments. Set in motion the cross - bridge actin myosin cross bridge cycle (sliding filiament) to bring about muscle contraction - powered by ATP.
- Ca++ actively taken back up by sarcoplasmic reticulum by carrier Ca++ ATPase pump in sarcoplasmic reticulum, when local AP is no longer present
- Contraction ends actin slides back to original resting position.
What steps out of 8 is synaptic transmission, (first 3 points( is very fast but observation of muscle twitch takes longer (excitation-contraction coupling and mechanics)?
- Alpha MN Action Potential (AP) to Motor Nerve terminal
- Ca++ enters nerve terminal -> synaptic vesicles to release Acetylcholine.
- Acetylcholine binds to receptors sets up a Muscle AP
Muscle action potentials last for only____ to ____ ms, whereas the muscle contraction that results can last about ____ ms. The time delay between stimulation and contraction is called the ______.
1 to 2; 50; latent period frequency of Action potentials
What are rate modulation?
Motor nerve actions of Skeletal muscle, from Muscle Action Potentials to Muscle Fiber twitch
What is increasing AP frequency?
AP frequency – Twitch Summation-Tetanus
What are 3 characteristics of rate modulation?
- Increasing the firing rate of motor units – each Motor Units increases its force contribution as frequency increases
- has as its basis twitch summation to tetanic contractions
- muscle contraction is smooth because motor units are activated asynchronously
If one moto neuron Small control –> more motor units (need to make more connections which have small control) Large force generated Small muscle = small motor unit (face, hands, feet) Large muscle = large motor uni (trunk, arm, leg)
a
What are 4 diseases of the neuromuscular synapse (junction)?
- Myasthenia Gravis
- Lambert-Eaton Syndrome
- Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)
- Motor Neuron Disease (Upper and Lower MNs)
What is Myasthenia Gravis? WON’T BE TESTED
causes the drop in the number of post-synaptic AChRs to such a level that causes muscle weakness. caused by genetic mutations to molecules that bring about high numbers of AChRs, can also be caused by auto-antibodies to AChRs which trigger endocytosis of AChRs
What is Lambert-Eaton Syndrome? WON’T BE TESTED
auto immune self antibodies to the presynaptic voltage gated calcium channels (probably P/Q type calcium channel) poor pre-synaptic release of neurotransmitter - leads to neuromuscular block
What is Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)? WON’T BE TESTED
an autosomal recessive disease caused by a genetic defect in the SMN1 gene, which encodes SMN, a protein widely expressed in all eukaryotic cells. SMN1 is apparently selectively necessary for survival of motor neurons (Lower Motor Neuron Disease. Defects 1st seen at the NMJ
What are 2 types of Motor Neuron Disease? WON’T BE TESTED
- Upper
- Lower MNs
What is the common phentotype- muscle weakness in the 4 disease of neuromuscular synapse (junction)?
What is the difference/similarity between Lambert-Eaton Syndrome VS Myasthenia Gravis?
- Same phenotype = muscle weakness
- Either pre or post Eg. botox = paralyses muscles
- Kill pre-synaptic release of neurotransmitters
- Chronic denervation = fibre type grouping
What is chronic denervation?
fibre type grouping
What is disease of the target organ - skeletal muscle = Muscular Dystrophies?
Caused by genetic mutations to dystrophnin and/or to molecules that associate with dystrophnin (directly and/or indirectly) - Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
X-linked –> when go eccentric movements (gets stretched) –> gets activated –> molecular connectors are broken (muscle membrane) –> shearing of muscles –> muscle damage
What is the Pathogenesis in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy?
Regeneration/dennervation cycle = but only a limited amount of time = start to loss muscle mass as already reached the limit for regeneration? What happens?
- Inflammatory response –> inflammatory mediated cell death of muscle –> becomes fat
- High fat content
How does the Neuromotor System grade the force of muscle contraction ?
Small motor units fine control but ____(stronger/weaker) muscle Contraction. Large Motor Units – _____ (larger/smaller) muscle contraction
weaker; larger
What does Alpha motor neuron connect with skeletal muscle to from the neuromuscular synapse look like?
Name a common skeletal muscle disease
Muscle dystrophy