Exercise 2: Skeletal Muscle Physiology: Activity 1: The Muscle Twitch and the Latent Period Lab Report Pre-lab

Quiz Results You scored 20% by answering 1 out of 5 questions correctly. 1. Skeletal muscles are connected to bones by Your answer : c. ligaments. Correct answer: b. tendons. 2. Skeletal muscles are composed of hundreds to thousands of individual cells called Your answer : d. myofilaments. Correct answer: c. fibers. 3. The term motor unit refers to Your answer : a. all of the motor neurons that innervate one skeletal muscle. Correct answer: c. one motor neuron and all of the skeletal muscle fibers it innervates. 4. The motor neuron and muscle fiber intersect at what is called You correctly answered: d. the neuromuscular junction. 5. A twitch is Your answer : c. multiple contractile responses to a series of action potentials. Correct answer: a. one contractile response to a single action potential.

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Experiment Results Predict Question: Predict Question: Will changes to the stimulus voltage alter the duration of the latent period? Your answer : a. Yes, changing the stimulus voltage will change the latent period duration proportionately. Stop & Think Questions: What is the period of time that elapses between the generation of an action potential and the start of muscle tension development in a muscle fiber? Your answer : b. the contractile period Correct answer: c. the latent period What occurs during the latent period of these isometric contractions? Your answer : a. The length of the muscle fiber is sliding into an optimal length. Correct answer: b. All the steps of excitation-contraction coupling occur. Experiment Data: Voltage 0.0 3.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 Length 75 75 75 75 75 75 Active Force 0.00 1.04 1.32 1.65 1.81 1.82 Passive Force 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total Force 0.00 1.04 1.32 1.65 1.81 1.82 Latent Period ----------0.0 0.0

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Post-lab Quiz Results You scored 42% by answering 3 out of 7 questions correctly. 1. An action potential in a motor neuron triggers the release of which neurotransmitter? Your answer: d. norepinephrine Correct answer: b. acetylcholine 2. The term skeletal muscle fiber refers to You correctly answered: a. an individual skeletal muscle cell. 3. The graded depolarization in the skeletal muscle fiber that is elicited in response to one action potential from the motor neuron is called Your answer: a. an EPSP (excitatory postsynaptic potential). Correct answer: c. an EPP (end-plate potential). 4. Which of the following is not a phase of a skeletal muscle twitch? You correctly answered: b. hyperpolarization phase 5. A skeletal muscle twitch is You correctly answered: a. one contractile response to a single action potential. 6. Which of the following correctly matches the twitch phase with its definition? Your answer: a. the latent period: the time from peak tension until the end of the muscle contraction Correct answer: d. the contraction phase: the time between the end of the latent period and peak muscle tension 7. A sufficiently strong electrical stimulus applied to an isolated, mounted skeletal muscle induces the development of muscle force, or muscle tension. Which of the following statements concerning this observation is true? Your answer: d. As the strength of the electrical stimulus is increased, the amount of force each individual muscle fiber generates also increases. Correct answer: c. The electrical stimulus mimics acetylcholine release at a neuromuscular junction

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Review Sheet Results 1. Define the terms skeletal muscle fiber, motor unit, skeletal muscle twitch, electrical stimulus, and latent period. Your answer: Skeletal muscle fiber- the cylidrical fibers that make up skeletal muscles. motor unit- a motor unit is a single motor neuron plus all the muscle fibers to which it connects. Some motor neurons only connect to a few muscle fibers. skeletal muscle twitch-A Muscle Twitch is a single contraction of skeletal muscle. The three distinct phases are latent, contraction, and relaxation. electrical stimulus-is the elicitation of muscle contraction using electric impulses. latent period-The interval between stimulation and response.

2. What is the role of acetylcholine in a skeletal muscle contraction? Your answer: (occurs at neuro muscular junction) At the end of the skeletal muscle fibre, there is a single motor neuron that forms many finer branches. At the end of these branches is a synaptic terminal which contain mitochondria and vesicles which in turn contain ACh. So, when an action potential is propagated down towards the synaptic terminal, ACh is triggered to be released by exocytosis into the synaptic cleft and then onto the motor end plate (which is the other surface upon which the action potential will propagate; this is highly folded for increased surface area). ACh then binds to receptors on the motor end plate, changing its permeability to Na+ ions. Na+ ions (due to an increased electrochemical gradient) rush into the sarcolemma. This influx increases until AChE breaks down the ACh. This influx results in the generation of an action potential! 3. Describe the process of excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle fibers. Your answer: CONVERTING AN ELECTRICAL STIMULUS INTO A MECHANICAL RESPONSE... The general scheme is that an action potential arrives to depolarize the cell membrane. By mechanisms specific to the muscle type, this depolarization results in an increase in cytosolic calcium that is called a calcium transient. This increase in calcium activates calcium-sensitive contractile proteins that then use ATP to cause cell shortening. process of converting an electrical stimulus to mechanical response [1]. This process is fundamental to muscle physiology, whereby the electrical stimulus is usually an action potential and the mechanical response is contraction. EC coupling can be dysregulated in many disease conditions. Though EC coupling has been known for over half a century, it is still an active area of biomedical research. The general scheme is that an action potential arrives to depolarize the cell membrane. By mechanisms specific to the muscle type, this depolarization results in an increase in cytosolic calcium that is called a calcium transient. This increase in calcium activates calcium-sensitive contractile proteins that then use ATP to cause cell shortening.

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4. Describe the three phases of a skeletal muscle twitch. Your answer: Latent Phase: Is the interval from the stimulus application until the muscle begins to contract (shorten). Note that there is no traced activity during this phase, but there are some electrical and chemical changes taking place during this phase. Contraction Phase: This phase is when the muscle fibers shorten, the tracings will show during this phase (a) peak(s).

Relaxation Phase: This phase is represented by the downward curve in your tracings, this is when the muscle is going back to its original state of relaxation and the muscle will once again lengthen 5. Does the duration of the latent period change with different stimulus voltages? How well did the results compare with your prediction? Your answer: No. In all tests, the latent period remained the same. The results proved my prediction to be incorrect.

6. At the threshold stimulus, do sodium ions start to move into or out of the cell to bring about the membrane depolarization? Your answer: The threshold is the time at which the sodium ions start moving into the cell to bring about the membrane depolarization.

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