Anatomy & Physiology 241 Final Objectives
For the final exam the student should be able to:
1. Describe proper anatomical position.
2. Define the following sections: sagittal, midsagittal, median, parasagittal, frontal,
coronal, transverse, horizontal, cross, oblique.
3. Describe/identify the region of the body each of the following terms refers to:
abdominal, acromial, antebrachial, antecubital, axillary, brachial, buccal, calcaneal,
carpal, cephalic, cervical, coxal, cranial, crural, digital, dorsal, facial, femoral, frontal,
gluteal, hallux, inguinal, lumbar, mammary, manual, mental, metacarpal, metatarsal
4. Describe the levels of complexity involved in living organisms. Define tissue, organ,
system. Explain the relationship between structure and function.
5. Define homeostasis. Explain how the body maintains homeostasis. Be sure to
explain homeostatis in terms of thermoregulation. Define negative & positive feedback
and how they work. Identify the specific components. Give examples of each.
6. Name the basic tissue types in the human body.
7. Describe the general features of epithelial tissues, give the criteria by which they are
classified and tell where specific epithelial tissue types are found. Be able to explain
how their structure complements their function.
8. Define exocrine gland and endocrine gland and give examples of each.
9. Describe the general features of connective tissue. Name, describe, and give the
functions of the types of fibers found in connective tissue and tell where specific
connective tissue types are found.
10. Give the general features of an epithelial membrane. Describe, give the function of,
and tell where in the body mucous, serous & synovial membranes are found.
11. Describe the functions of the skin. Describe in detail the epidermis; identify the 5
strata that comprise it and give the function of each. Tell the types of cell found in each
layer. Differentiate between thick and thin skin and tell where each is found in the body.
12. Describe the dermis.
13. Differentiate between merocrine, apocrine, and holocrine glands and give an
example of each. Identify eccrine sweat glands, apocrine sweat glands, and sebaceous
glands by gland type. Tell where sebaceous glands and sweat glands are found in the
body and to which stimuli they respond. Define sebum and give its function.
14. Describe the responses of the body (with emphasis on the skin) to deviations from
normal body temperature. Explain how these responses help return the body
temperature to normal.
15. Give the functions of the skeletal system. Name the principle inorganic mineral
found in bone and the principal ions making up this material.
16. Name the different classifications of bones by shape.
17. Identify all bones belonging to the axial and appendicular skeletons.
18. Describe the gross anatomy of a long bone. Identify and describe diaphysis,
epiphysis, epiphyseal line and endosteum. Identify, describe and give the functions of:
epiphyseal plate, medullary cavity, peirosterum, compact bone, spongy bone,
trabeculae, red and yellow bone marrow and articular cartilage.
19. Compare and contrast the structures of compact and spongy bone. Give locations.
20. Describe the microscopic structure of bone. Identify, describe and give the functions
of: osteoblasts, osteocytes, osteoclats, matrix, lacunae, lamellae, canaliculi, Haversian
system (osteon), Haversian canal, Volkmann’s canal.
21. Describe the process of intramembranous ossification. Explain the roles of
osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Describe the process of endochondral ossification.
Describe how a long bone increases in length and in width.
22. Explain the role of each of the following on bone development and growth: dietary
calcium, phosphates and proteins, vitamins D, A and C, parathyroid hormone, growth
hormone, calcitonin, estrogen, testosterone and physical stress-Wolff’s Law.
23. Define synarthrosis, amphiarthrosis, diathosis-give examples, locations and
movements of each. Give types of synarathrotic joints and types of amphiarthrotic joints.
Know locations, functions and structure.
24. Explain, describe, and give structure and functions of synovial joints. Know locations
in the body. Give the structural classification of: gliding, hinge, pivot, ellipsoidal, saddle
and ball and socket. Know movements possible for all types of joints.
25. Describe the following types of movements: flexion, extension, rotation, pronation,
supination, abduction, adduction, circumduction, dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, eversion,
inversion, elevation, depression, protraction and retraction.
26. Define origin and insertion and give the origin. Give the action of muscles .
27. Know the functions of skeletal muscle.
28. Know sarcolemma, sarcoplasmic reticulum and sarcoplasm. Know what satellite
cells do and how they developed embryologically.
29. Describe the connective tissues within and around a muscle.
30. Describe a myofibril. Describe the shape and the position within the muscle cell.
How many myofibrils in a muscle cell? Describe myofilaments and give relation to
myofibril. Understand how the striations of skeletal muscle result from the arrangements
of myofilaments in myofibrils. Describe the structure of thick & thin filaments. Describe
the arrangement of myosin heads on a thick filament. Know the terms A band and I
band, anisotropic and isotropic. Know F-actin, G-actin. Describe how actin molecules
are arranged in a thin filament. What and where is an actin active site? Where are the
tropomyosin molecules, and what do they do? Where are the troponin molecules, and
what do they do?
31. Describe a sarcomere; its relation to a myofibril and all of the regions it contains.
32. What are transverse tubules and triads? Where are they in relation to myofibrils?
What is their function? What is a terminal cisterna?
33. What is the sliding filament mechanism in muscle contraction?
34. Know how tension develops in a muscle. Explain how length and tension are
related.
35. Know all steps in skeletal muscle contraction, starting with an action potential and
ending with sliding of contractile filaments.
36. Describe a neuromuscular junction and excitation-contraction coupling. Explain
motor end plate, synaptic cleft, ACH, junctional folds, exocytosis, ACHE, depolarization,
threshold & action potential
37. Understand the contraction cycle of a myosin head. Explain how repeated cycling
of myosin heads results in shortening of sarcomeres. Understand the role of ATP in the
contraction cycle.
38. Explain how muscle relaxes include function of Ca, Calcium pumps, troponin and
tropomyosin. How do series elastic fibers contribute to muscle relaxation?
39. Describe a muscle twitch include: latent, contraction, and relaxation phases. Do
twitches happen during normal movement?
40. Explain summation of twitches. Describe incomplete tetanus and tetanus. Know
when these occur. Explain how frequency of contractions contributes to tetanus.
Describe treppe and how it comes about. How does calcium play into treppe?
41. What is motor unit recruitment? How does the nervous system use this to grade
muscle force? What is a motor unit? What do motor units have to do with tension
development? Describe asynchronous recruitment.
42. Know isotonic and isometric contractions. Know concentric and eccentric
contractions. Know what happens in each type of contraction and when.
43. Name major mechanisms for ATP synthesis in a skeletal muscle cell. Which occur
in mitochondria and which occur in the cytoplasm?
44. Know how creatine phosphate is used in muscle contractions and when. Where
does energy come from that is used to synthesize ATP? What is the advantage of
being able to synthesize ATP by this mechanism? Why is it that this mechanism can
continue only for a short time?
45. Know metabolic pathways involved in aerobic metabolism-gylcolysis, Kreb’s cycle
and oxidative phosphorylation (electron transport chain). Know when it is used and
where it is conducted. What does aerobic mean? Where does the energy come from
that is used to synthesize ATP? What are the products of aerobic metabolism?
46. When and where does anaerobic glycolysis occur in skeletal muscle cells? Where
does the energy come from that is used to synthesize ATP? What are the products of
anaerobic glycolysis? What is the advantage of being able to synthesize ATP by this
mechanism? What are the disadvantages. Explain how muscle soreness and fatigue
are byproducts of anaerobic metabolism.
47. Compare and contrast slow-twitch, fast-twitch muscle fibers and intermediate fibers.
Why are they named as they are? What components are found in each? What makes
them contract more slowly or more rapidly? Why are slow-twitch fibers especially
adapted for aerobic metabolism, and fast-twitch fibers for anaerobic mechanisms for
ATP synthesis?
48. Make some generalizations about the types of motor units that you would expect to
see in postural muscles (such as back and neck muscles) that are used for long periods
of time, versus muscles that are used only some of the time for larger force movements.
49. Explain physical conditioning-anaerobic-for endurance and aerobic-for length of
time. Explain hypertrophy and atrophy. Which conditioning promotes hypertrophy and
why?
50. Where is smooth muscle located? Why is smooth muscle called that? Why is it
involuntary? What are its functions? Give a general description of the arrangement of
thick filaments, thin filaments, and dense bodies. How does contraction occur? What is
the importance of calmodulin? Does length-tension relationship hold for smooth
muscle? How does relaxation occur.
51. Compare and contrast multiunit and single unit smooth muscle contractions. Know
where each is found and when it is used to contract muscle.
52. Know several different types of regulatory mechanisms that can influence the
contraction, or contractile tone, in smooth muscle-motor neurons, hormones, O2 & CO2,
physical stimulation-stretching & irritation.
53. Describe the functions of the nervous system. Explain the role of the nervous
system in maintaining homeostasis. How is it different and similar to the endocrine
system?
54. Describe the organization of the nervous system-CNS, PNS-afferent and efferent
divisions, somatic nervous system, automatic nervous system. Name the 2 divisions of
the autonomic nervous system.
55. Differentiate between neurons and neuroglia cells. Identify types of neuroglia cells,
where they are found and give specific functions.
56. Describe the structure of a generalized neuron. Identify-cell body (soma),
perikaryon, nucleus, nucleolus, centrioles, axoplasm, axolemma, Nissl bodies,
neurofibrils, nerve fibers, dendrite, dendritic spikes, axon, axon hillock, axon collateral,
telodendria, synaptic terminal, node of Ranvier. Give function of each of these. Tell
which cells myelinate axons in both the PNS and the CNS.
57. Describe the synapse in detail. Give types of junctions possible and types of
synapses. Explain the difference between electrical and chemical synapses and
andrenergic and cholingergic.
60. Define sensory neuron, motor neuron, interneuron ;give function and location
61. Be able to classify neurons as anaxonic, bipolar, unipolar and multipolar. Explain
what this means. Give functions and locations.
62. Describe the potassium ion and sodium ion concentrations on either side of a
resting neuron cell membrane. Explain how these establish a membrane potential.
Explain how sodium ions and potassium ions move across the cell membrane and why
different concentrations of these ions are found on opposite sides of a membraneelectrical forces, chemical forces, channels. Tell what the net charge is-inside and
outside a resting neuron cell membrane. Explain why this difference in charges exists.
How is the permeability of the cell membrane important in this? Why is resting potential
important in nerve conduction? Be sure you know how and why it is maintained. What
does electrochemical gradient mean?
63. Describe the changes that happen to a neuron cell membrane when an appropriate
stimulus is applied to it. Define local potential and action potential and differentiate
between the two. Tell which is a graded response. What does graded response mean?
Describe what happens when a local potential brings the membrane potential to
threshold. What does threshold means? Define depolarization, repolarization and
hyperpolarization. Explain how membrane channels are important in this.
64. Describe the conduction of a nerve impulse along an unmyelinated and a
myelinated axon. How is speed affected? How does diameter effect neuron speed.
65. Give steps of action potential generation-explain in detail what happens at each
step. What is threshold? Define the “all or none” principle with respect to nerve
impulses.
67. Define refractory period of a neuron. Give the difference between absolute and
relative refractory periods. How is this important in direction of conduction?
67. Give examples of different neurotransmitters. Describe what happens to
neurotransmitters (concentrate on ACH) once they are released into the synaptic cleft.
68. Describe divergence, parallel processing, convergence, serial processing and
reverberation. Give examples.
69. Explain the parts of the brain, what they do, what they consist of and where they are
found. Define and give the functions of the cerebral cortex. What constitutes gray and
white matter? Define association, commissural and projection fibers. Differentiate
between a tract and a nerve. Describe and give the function of the cerebral nuclei (basal
ganglia). Identify and give the function of the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex
(somatic motor association area), Broca’s area (speech center), primary sensory cortex,
auditory cortex, prefrontal cortex. Explain why one side of the body is controlled by the
opposite side of the brain and why stimuli applied to one side of the body are perceived
by the opposite side of the brain.
70. Explain a homuniculus-motor and sensory.
71. Identify and give the function of the parts of the eye.
72. Tell which muscle fibers contract to produce constriction of the pupil and which ones
produce dilation. Explain the purpose of changing the diameter of the pupil.
73. Define accommodation, and explain how it is accomplished. Define convergence
and tell which muscles are involved.
74. Describe the image formed on the retina and how the brain perceives this image.
Describe how light impulses are converted into nerve impulses in the rods and in the
cones. Describe the role of rhodopsin and retinal. Give the 3 colors of light that the
different types of cones respond to.
75. Describe the neural pathways associated with vision, naming the nerves, tracts, and
CNS centers involved. Describe what happens at the optic chiasma.
76. Give the function and location of the parts of the ear. Describe the events involved
in hearing. Explain how differences in pitch and loudness are detected. Explain how
location can be determined by sound.
77. Describe the mechanism for detecting static equilibrium. Identify and give the
function of the utricle and saccule in the vestibule, maculae, otoliths. Describe the
mechanism for detecting dynamic equilibrium. Identify and give the function of the 3
semi-circular canals, ampullae crista ampullaris, cupula, endolymph. Describe the
neural pathways associated with equilibrium, naming the nerves and CNS centers
involved.
78. Identify and give the function of olfactory cells, olfactory epithelium, olfactory nerves,
olfactory bulbs, olfactory tracts. Describe the neural pathways associated with olfaction,
naming the nerves, tracts, and CNS centers involved.
79. Explain how odorant molecules make the sensation of smell. Include the
characteristics odorant molecules must have.
80. Identify and give the function of taste buds, gustatory cells, microvilli, taste pore.
Explain the mechanism of stimulation. Describe the neural pathways associated with
gustation, naming the nerves and CNS centers involved. Name all the taste sensations.