KNES 385 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Golgi Tendon Organ, Muscle Spindle, Myocyte

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Kinesiology
• Course: KNES 385
• Professor: Rodolphe Gentili

Document Summary

Innervate the extrafusal muscle fibers that are responsible for generating force: neurons that feed into the outside of the fiber. Innvervate intrafusal muscle fibers: go inside the fiber. Innervation ratio: number of muscle fibers innervated by a motor neuron, ratio is important for force. Motor pool: all motor neurons that innervate a particular muscle, cell bodies in motor pool are clustered. Muscle spindles detect muscle length and the rate of change of muscle length. Activation of gamma motor neurons allow muscle spindles to operate over a wide range of muscle lengths. Muscle is pushed on and changes the way it flexes, determining length of contraction. Example: want to stretch bicep: move arm back and the muscle is going to stretch, system does not stop responding because if you close your eyes your know where your arm is in space. Sensitivity of muscle spindle: note from online.