Sensory and Motor Mechanisms

Chapter 49
3 Types of Muscles
1. Smooth – involuntary, unstriated (not banded)
- controlled by autonomic system

2. Cardiac – involuntary, striated

3. Skeletal – voluntary, striated

The anatomy of a muscle cell
Muscle cells are multinucleated and contain many myofibrils (actin,
myosin, etc.)

Sarcolemma – modified plasma membrane that surrounds each

muscle fiber
Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) – modified endoplasmic reticulum
that contains Ca++
T system – system of tubules that connects SR to extracellular fluid
The functional unit of a myofibril is the Sarcomere
 What initiates muscle contraction?
Tutorial of the neuromuscular junction:
The Neuromuscular Junction - Learning Activity

http://www.wisc-online.com/objects/index_tj.asp?objid=AP2804
How do muscles contract and relax?
Each sacromere is composed of myosin (thick filaments) and
actin (thin filaments)

Actin (thin) contains the proteins actin, tropnin, and tropomyosin

Myosin (thick) contains the protein myosin

Learning Muscle Contraction Through Tutorials

AP Interactive Animations

http://science.nhmccd.edu/biol/ap1int.htm#muscle
How Muscles Contract
1. Ca++ is released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum in response to an action
potential traveling down the T-tubules

2. In the presence of Ca++, myosin binding sites located on actin become

exposed. The mysoin heads bind to actin.

(the place where the myosin head meets the actin is called a cross-link)

3. Binding causes the release of ADP + Pi in the myosin head. This leads to
a conformational change in the myosin head (called a Power Stroke)

4. ATP binds to myosin which causes actin to be released from the myosin
head.

5. ATP hydrolyzes to ADP + Pi causing a conformational change

6. Ca++ are actively transported back to the sarcoplasmic reticulum

Note! Myosin (thick filaments) do not shorten during muscle

contraction. Only actin (thin filaments) shortens.
Pathway of light:

cornea  pupil  iris lens  retina

Photoreceptors of the Eye

Rods – black and white, extremely light sensitive

Cones – see colors, resolution

Both create a chemical, rhodopsin, that creates electrical

impulses in the optical nerve