Unit 3 Review on Muscle and Nervous Tissues

A set of flashcards covering key concepts related to muscle tissue, nervous tissue, and their physiological mechanisms.

Skeletal muscle

Voluntary muscle tissue that is striated and allows for movement by attaching to bones.

Cardiac muscle

Striated muscle found only in the heart, which is autorhythmic.

Smooth muscle

Involuntary, non-striated muscle tissue found in walls of organs.

Perimysium

Connective tissue that surrounds muscle fascicles.

Transverse tubules

Microscopic structures that transmit action potentials through the muscle fiber.

Sliding filament theory

Mechanism that explains how muscle fibers contract by the interaction of actin and myosin.

Excitation-contraction coupling

Process that links the electrical signal of a neuron to the mechanical response of muscle contraction.

Myosin heads

Part of the thick filament in muscle fibers that binds to actin during contraction.

Acetylcholine

Neurotransmitter released by motor neurons to stimulate muscle contraction.

Myoglobin

Oxygen-binding protein in skeletal muscle that acts as an oxygen reserve.

Fused tetani

A sustained muscle contraction that occurs when muscle fibers are stimulated frequently.

Isotonic contraction

Muscle contraction that involves a change in length while maintaining constant tension.

Temporal summation

Process where multiple stimuli are applied to a muscle in rapid succession to increase contraction force.

Neurotransmitter termination

Methods such as reuptake, degradation, and diffusion that stop the effects of neurotransmitters.

Saltatory conduction

Rapid signal transmission in myelinated neurons due to the jumping of action potentials between nodes.

Ependymal cells

Ciliated neuroglial cells that line the ventricles of the brain and help circulate cerebrospinal fluid.

Multipolar neurons

Neurons with multiple dendrites and one axon, which are the most common type in the CNS.

Dendrites

Processes on neurons that receive signals from other neurons.

Diverging circuit

Neural circuit where a single neuron synapses with several post-synaptic neurons.

Voltage-gated potassium channels

Ion channels that open during repolarization of a neuron after an action potential.

Chemically gated Cl⁻ or K⁺ channels

Ion channels that may lead to hyperpolarization when opened by neurotransmitter binding.

Relative refractory period

Phase post-action potential where a greater-than-normal stimulus can generate another action potential.