Name ________________________ Date ________________ Block _____
Muscular System Study Guide
The test will be over the following sections from the book and notes: Overview of muscle tissue, Muscle
Functions, Microscopic anatomy of skeletal muscles, Nerve stimulus and the action potential, The sliding
filament theory. Please be sure to study these sections and be ready for a quiz over them. Below are some
questions that might help guide your studying. The first part are ones that I made up. The second part are
questions that fellow students made up.
Standards
1) Describe how an action potential is initiated in a muscle cell.
2) Describe the events of muscle cell contraction.
3) Define origin, insertion, prime mover, antagonist, synergist, and fixator as they relate to muscles.
4) Demonstrate or identify the different types of body movements.
5) List some criteria used in naming muscles.
6) Describe the changes that occur in aging muscles.
Basic Study Questions
7) What does the muscular system consist of?
8) List 4 functions of muscles. Produces movement, maintains posture, stabilizes joints, and generates heat.
9) What is the main/essential function of muscles? Contraction or to shorten.
10) Muscles cells are also called______________ muscle fibers
11) Identify/name the 3 types of muscles found in the human body. Skeletal, smooth, cardiac
12) What are the major characteristics of each of the 3 types of muscles?
Skeletal – attached to bones, striated, cylindrical, multinucleated, voluntary
Cardiac – walls of the heart, branching cells, striated, uninucleated, involuntary
Smooth – walls of hollow organs, non-striated, cigar shaped, uninucleated, involuntary
13) Identify the muscle types that are involuntary? See above
14) Identify the muscle types that are voluntary? See above
15) All muscles are striated. (True or False) False
16) What are the different parts of a skeletal muscle? Epimysium, perimysium, fascicle, endomysium
17) How is a fascicle different from a muscle fiber? A fascicle is made up of many fibers.
18) What is the difference between Endomysium, perimysium, and an epimysium?
Endomysium – connective tissue sheath around the muscle fiber
Perimysium – coarse fiberous membrane that wraps the fascicle
Epimysium – tough outer covering of connective tissue around the entire muscle
19) Identify the 2 main proteins that makeup muscle fibers.
Actin and Myosin
20) Where is each type of protein, in the previous question, located within the muscle fiber?
Actin – z-line(thin filament), I band
Myosin – A band (thick filament)
21) Explain the “Sliding Filament Theory” in terms of how muscles contract.
See poster activity
22) What role does myosin play in muscle contraction?
It has heads that reach out and attach to the actin. These heads then pull the actin strands toward each
other.
23) What role does actin play in muscle contraction?
It acts as a base that the myosin heads and bind to.
24) What is the place where thin filaments are anchored to called? Z-disc
25) What is an A-band/ I-band/H-zone?
A-band - the section of myofibril that contains the entire length of the myosin protein.
I –band – the section of myofibril that contains only the actin proteins.
H-zone – the section of the myofibril that appears to have a space that appears to disappear when the
muscle is contracted.
26) What is a motor unit? Motor neuron and muscle fiber it connects to.
27) During a muscle contraction how does the nerve “talk” to the cell? A neurotransmitter called ACh
28) What is the space between the nerve and muscle fiber called? Synaptic cleft
29) During a muscle contraction how does sodium get into the cell? The Ach binding with the sarcolemma
becomes permeable.
30) During a muscle contraction what does calcium bind to? Blocking protein on the actin
31) What happens once the calcium has bonded? The blocking protein gets out of the way.
32) How do you tell the difference between the muscle origin and insertion points?
Origin is attached to the immovable bone
Insertion is attached to the moveable bone
33) What are the 6 major types of muscle movement? Give a real world example of each.
Flexion – bringing two bones together
Extension – moving two bones apart
Abduction – moving a limb away from the body
Adduction – moving a limb toward the body
Rotation – movement of a bone around it’s long axis (shaking head)
Circumduction – combination of everything.
34) What are the 6 special types of muscle movement? Give a real world example of each.
Pronation – moving palm to face backward
Supination – moving palm to face forward
Inversion – turning foot inward
Eversion – turning foot outward
Dorsiflexion – pulling the toes towards the shin
Plantar flexion – pointin the toes
35) What is are primary movers/antagonists? Give an example of each.
Primary mover – muscel that is mainly responsible for motion.
Antagonist – undoes the motion of the primary mover
36) What do synergist and fixators do?
Synergist – help or the primary mover
Fixators – stabilizes the joint.
Questions created by students
37) Where are smooth muscles found?
38) Where are cardiac muscles found?
39) How does the body stabilize joints?
40) What is the outer covering of the muscle cell?
41) What is another name for thick filaments?
42) Where are actin molecules located?
43) What is the name of the gap between thin filaments that exist in relaxed skeletal muscles?
44) What are the small projections located in a myofibril that are sometimes called cross bridges?
45) T or F The sarcolemma becomes permeable to all proteins.
46) T or F During a muscle contraction thick and thin filaments overlap.
47) What does the A-band consist of?
48) What is the sarcomere?
49) What is the ability to shorten when an adequate stimulus is received?
50) What are the functions of the skeletal muscles?
51) What is a chemical released by nerve upon arrival of nerve impulse called?
52) What is the connective tissue surrounding a fascicle called?
53) What connective tissue that is ensheathing the entire muscle?
54) A muscle cell is called what?
55) A cord like extension of connective tissue beyond the muscle, serving to attach it to the bone.
56) What is a contractile unit of a muscle?
57) What does calcium bind to that changes shape and their position on the filaments?
58) Skeletal muscles pull on bones to cause movements, they also stabilize what?
59) What is another name for thick filament?
60) What is the thin filimaments composed of?
61) What is used to power muscle contraction?
62) Which muscles force fluids through the body?
63) Which muscles work together to circulate blood and maintain blood pressure?
64) The muscles specialized plasma membrane called?
stebatch