HSC 120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Sliding Filament Theory, Resting Potential, T-Tubule
Document Summary
A motor unit is best defined as a motor neuron plus all of the muscle fibers which it innervates. During the propagation of the excitation wave along the sarcolemma, the action potentials travel down the transverse tubules, stimulating the intracellular release of calcium ions. According to the sliding filament model of muscle contraction, the myofilaments sliding over each other result in the overlapping of myosin and actin. Acetylcholine is released at the neuromuscular junction when an action potential arrives at the motor neuron terminal. During muscle relaxation, tropomyosin moves back to its actin-bound position. The role of an electrode is to stimulate the muscle. The role of the force transducer is to measure the contraction of the muscle. The functions of the data acquisition unit is to decode the electrical signal from the transducer and convert it to a force signal and generate electrical pulses to stimulate the muscle with the electrode.
