Module 5

Module 5

1. muscular system performs three tasks

   • movement
   • posture
   • heat production

2. three kinds of muscle tissue

   • skeletal
     • striated (distinct, orderly, striped pattern)
     • voluntary muscles (muscles you can control)
       • includes all the muscles that move the bone, the tongue, and the diaphragm
     • long thin cells that are multinucleated
     • skeletal muscle structure
       • attached to bone with a tendon
         • tendon = dense regular connective tissue
   • cardiac
     • only found in the heart
     • striated
     • each cell only has one nucleus
     • involuntary (you cannot control it)
   • smooth
     • involuntary
     • called smooth because the cells are nonstriated (not striped)
     • cells are small & have one nucleus

3. muscle tissue has four major functional characteristics

   • contractility (can contract forcefully)
   • excitability (can produce action potential signals)
   • extensibility (can passively stretch out / relaxing to normal length after being pulled on)
   • elasticity (when a muscle is extended, it tends to recoil back to a shorter length)