Name: Lyn Marielle Abesamis

Exercise 2: Skeletal Muscle Physiology: Activity 1: The Muscle Twitch and the Latent Period Lab Report

Pre-lab Quiz Results

You scored 100% by answering 5 out of 5 questions correctly.

1. Skeletal muscles are connected to bones by

You correctly answered: b. tendons.

2. Skeletal muscles are composed of hundreds to thousands of individual cells called

You correctly answered: c. fibers.

3. The term motor unit refers to

You correctly answered: c. one motor neuron and all of the skeletal muscle fibers it innervates.

4. The motor neuron and muscle fiber intersect at what is called

You correctly answered: d. the neuromuscular junction.

5. A twitch is
You correctly answered: a. one contractile response to a single action potential.

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Experiment Results
Predict Question:
Predict Question: Will changes to the stimulus voltage alter the duration of the latent period?
Your answer : b. No, changing the stimulus voltage will not change the latent period duration.

Stop & Think Questions:

What is the period of time that elapses between the generation of an action potential and the start of muscle tension
development in a muscle fiber?
You correctly answered: c. the latent period

What occurs during the latent period of these isometric contractions?

You correctly answered: b. All the steps of excitation-contraction coupling occur.

Experiment Data:

Voltage Length Active Force Passive Force Total Force Latent Period
0.0 75 0.0 0.0 0.0 ----
3.0 75 1.04 0.0 1.04 ----
4.0 75 1.32 0.0 1.32 2.40
6.0 75 1.65 0.0 1.65 2.40
8.0 75 1.81 0.0 1.81 2.80
10.0 75 1.82 0.0 1.82 2.40

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Post-lab Quiz Results
You scored 100% by answering 6 out of 6 questions correctly.

1. An action potential in a motor neuron triggers the release of which neurotransmitter?

You correctly answered: b. acetylcholine

2. The term skeletal muscle fiber refers to

You correctly answered: a. an individual skeletal muscle cell.

3. The graded depolarization in the skeletal muscle fiber that is elicited in response to one action potential from the motor
neuron is called
You correctly answered: c. an EPP (end-plate potential).

4. Which of the following is not a phase of a skeletal muscle twitch?

You correctly answered: b. hyperpolarization phase

5. A skeletal muscle twitch is

You correctly answered: a. one contractile response to a single action potential.

6. Which of the following correctly matches the twitch phase with its definition?
You correctly answered: d. the contraction phase: the time between the end of the latent period and peak muscle tension

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Review Sheet Results
1. Define the terms skeletal muscle fiber, motor unit, skeletal muscle twitch, electrical stimulus, and latent period.
Your answer:
skeletal muscle fiber: single muscle cell that consists of skeletal muscle
motor unit: a motor neuron with the muscle fiber it innervates
skeletal muscle twitch: response to a single action potential
electrical stimulus: makes the muscles contract
latent period: period between stimulating and start of the contraction

2. What is the role of acetylcholine in a skeletal muscle contraction?

Your answer:
Acetylcholine diffuses to the membrane of the muscle fibers and binds to receptors in the motor endplate to make electrical
potential.

3. Describe the process of excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle fibers.

Your answer:
The neuromuscular junction leads the the end platepotential and the end platepotential triggers a process resulting in the
contraction of the muscle cell.

4. Describe the three phases of a skeletal muscle twitch.

Your answer:
Latent period: between the generation of an action potential in a muscle cell and the start of the contraction
Contraction period: between end of the latent period and ends when the muscle tension peaks
Relaxation period: the period from peak tension until the end when the muscle contracts

5. Does the duration of the latent period change with different stimulus voltages? How well did the results compare with
your prediction?
Your answer:
In all the experiments, the latent period remained the same as I predicted.

6. At the threshold stimulus, do sodium ions start to move into or out of the cell to bring about the membrane
depolarization?
Your answer:
The sodium ions move into the cell during the threshold stimulus to make the membrane depolarize.

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