Exercise 2: Skeletal Muscle Physiology: Activity 2: The Effect of Stimulus Voltage on Skeletal Muscle Contraction Lab Report Pre-lab

Quiz Results You scored 100% by answering 4 out of 4 questions correctly. 1. Skeletal muscle fibers are innervated (stimulated) by You correctly answered: c. motor neurons. 2. A single action potential propagating down a motor axon results in You correctly answered: d. a single action potential and a single contractile event in the muscle fibers it innervates. 3. In resting skeletal muscle, calcium is stored in You correctly answered: c. the sarcoplasmic reticulum. 4. During the latent period for an isometric contraction You correctly answered: c. the cellular events involved in excitation-contraction coupling occur.

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Experiment Results Predict Question: Predict Question: As the stimulus voltage is increased from 1.0 volt up to 10 volts, what will happen to the amount of active force generated with each stimulus? Your answer : a. The active force will continually increase. Stop & Think Questions: What do you see in the active force display when the stimulus voltage is set to 0.0, and why does this observation make sense? You correctly answered: a. 0.00 g; there was no activation of skeletal muscle fibers by this stimulus. What is the lowest stimulus voltage that induces active force in the skeletal muscle? You correctly answered: b. threshold voltage 6. Enter the threshold voltage for this experiment in the field below and then click Submit to record your answer in the lab report You answered: 0.8 volts 12. Enter the maximal voltage for this experiment in the field below and then click Submit to record your answer in the lab report. You answered: 8.5 volts Experiment Data: Voltage 0.0 0.2 0.8 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 Length 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 Active Force 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.15 0.43 0.66 0.87 1.04 1.19 1.32 1.42 1.51 1.59 1.65 1.70 1.74 1.78 1.81 1.82 1.82 1.82 1.82 Passive Force 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total Force 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.15 0.43 0.66 0.87 1.04 1.19 1.32 1.42 1.51 1.59 1.65 1.70 1.74 1.78 1.81 1.82 1.82 1.82 1.82

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Post-lab Quiz Results You scored 100% by answering 5 out of 5 questions correctly. 1. Motor unit recruitment refers to You correctly answered: a. an increase in the number of active muscle fibers to increase the force developed in a muscle. 2. Active tension (or force) in a skeletal muscle fiber results from You correctly answered: a. activation of cross bridge cycling via increased intracellular calcium levels. 3. The ________ is the minimal stimulus needed to cause a depolarization of the muscle plasma membrane (sarcolemma). You correctly answered: d. threshold voltage 4. By definition, the ________ is the amount of stimulus required to successfully recruit all the muscle fibers into developing active force. You correctly answered: c. maximal voltage 5. Why was a maximal voltage observed in this experiment? You correctly answered: b. At the maximal voltage, all the muscle fibers contained in this muscle are depolarized and they all develop active force (that is, they were all successfully recruited).

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Review Sheet Results 1. Describe the effect of increasing stimulus voltage on isolated skeletal muscle. Specifically, what happened to the muscle force generated with stronger electrical stimulations and why did this change occur? How well did the results compare with your prediction? Your answer: Increasing the stimulus voltage on the isolated skeletal muscle mimics how the nervous system increase the activated number of motor units, thus the total force produced by the muscle increases. But my prediction was wrong because it didn't continually increase, because it reached a certain limit. 2. How is this change in whole-muscle force achieved in vivo? Your answer: The change in the whole-muscle force was achieved in vivo where additional motor units are recruited to increase the total muscle force produced basically copying how the nervous system increases the number of activated motor units. 3. What happened in the isolated skeletal muscle when the maximal voltage was applied? Your answer: When maximal voltage was applied to the isolated skeletal muscle, it increased total muscle force, which increased the need for motor units which in turn ends with motor unit recruitment.

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