Exercise 2: Skeletal Muscle Physiology: Activity 3: The Effect of Stimulus Frequency on Skeletal Muscle Contraction Lab

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Pre-lab Quiz Results

You scored 100% by answering 4 out of 4 questions correctly.

1. During a single twitch of a skeletal muscle

You correctly answered: b. maximal force is never achieved.

2. When a skeletal muscle is repetitively stimulated, twitches can overlap each other and result in a stronger muscle
contraction than a stand-alone twitch. This phenomenon is known as
You correctly answered: c. wave summation.

3. Wave summation is achieved by

You correctly answered: a. increasing the stimulus frequency (the rate of stimulus delivery to the muscle).

4. Wave summation increases the force produced in the muscle. Another way to increase the force produced by a muscle
is to
You correctly answered: d. increase the number of activated motor units.

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Experiment Results
Predict Question:
Predict Question 1: As the stimulus frequency increases, what will happen to the muscle force generated with each
successive stimulus? Will there be a limit to this response?
Your answer : b. As the stimulus frequency increases, the muscle force generated by each successive stimulus will
increase. There will be a limit to this increase.

Predict Question 2: In order to produce sustained muscle contractions with an active force value of 5.2 grams, do you think
you will need to increase the stimulus voltage?
Your answer : b. no

Stop & Think Questions:

Was there any change in the force generated by the muscle during the second stimulated twitch?
You correctly answered: c. Yes, the second twitch generated more muscle force.

Is the total muscle force generated by the higher frequency stimulation greater than the force generated in previous
stimulations?
You correctly answered: a. Yes, it is greater than the previous stimulations.

Does the force generated by the muscle change with each additional stimulus?
You correctly answered: b. As the stimulus frequency increased, the muscle tension generated by each successive stimulus
also increased, and a limiting maximum value was observed.

Experiment Data:

Voltage Length Stimulus Active Force Passive Force Total Force

8.5 75 Single 1.83 0.00 1.83
8.5 75 Multiple 3.09 0.00 3.09
8.5 75 Multiple 2.93 0.00 2.93
8.5 75 Multiple 4.65 0.00 4.65
10 75 Multiple 4.80 0.00 4.80
8.5 75 Multiple 5.71 0.00 5.71

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Post-lab Quiz Results
You scored 0% by answering 0 out of 4 questions correctly.

1. Which of the following is not one of the ways that the body can increase the force produced by a skeletal muscle?
You did not answer this question.

Correct answer: d. application of higher voltages to the whole muscle

2. When a muscle receives a stimulus frequency that causes non-overlapping twitches to follow each other closely in time
such that the peak tension of each twitch rises in a stepwise fashion up to a plateau value, the result is known as
You did not answer this question.

Correct answer: c. treppe.

3. In this experiment the isolated skeletal muscle was repetitively stimulated such that individual twitches overlapped with
each other and resulted in a stronger muscle contraction than a standalone twitch. This phenomenon is known as
You did not answer this question.

Correct answer: c. wave summation.

4. Wave summation is achieved by

You did not answer this question.

Correct answer: a. increasing the rate of stimulus delivery (frequency) to the muscle.

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Review Sheet Results
You have not completed the Review Sheet.

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