A neuromuscular junction is a chemical conjunction formed during the contact between motor neuron and a muscle fiber. Each branch of a motoneuron forms a single junction with a muscle fiber (University of Minnesota, 2011). At the neuromuscular junction, the motor neuron is able to send a signal to the muscle fiber which ultimately allows for muscle contraction. The operation, when the neurotransmitter, are released by a neuron begins when the action potential reaches the presynaptic terminal of the neuron, which then activates calcium channels allowing calcium ions to enter the neurons. The calcium ions that entered the neuron then bind to a sensory protein like synaptotagmin, releasing vesicle fusion across the cell membrane. Vesicles are …show more content…
Our body has three muscle types, skeletal muscle , cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Each muscle has different functions within the body. Cardiac muscle is located in the heart and is responsible for pumping blood within the heart. Cardiac muscle is one of the two muscles with an activity that is non-voluntary meaning that signal from the motor neuron is not required for blood to pump through the heart. The second type of muscle is smooth muscle which is located in the intestines and responsible for moving food and regulating blood pressure(Freeman, 2011). Like cardiac muscle, smooth muscle also requires non-voluntary activity, where the signal from the motor neurons is not required for it to function properly. Lastly, the most important muscle in the neuromuscular junction, skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscle is attached to the bones through tendons composed of connective tissue and is responsible for moving the skeleton, however unlike the other two muscle types, skeletal muscle requires voluntary activity meaning that signal from the motor neurons is required (Ritchison, 2016). In this paper, I will be discussing the functions and parts of the neuromuscular …show more content…
As Lyn D. Weiss et al. (2016) states in Easy EMG: A Guide to Performing Nerve Conduction Studies and Electromyography, the neuromuscular junction is the relay between the nerve terminal and the skeletal muscle fiber. The neuromuscular junction as a whole is the site where the neurons activate the muscle to actually contract. The steps of the neuromuscular junction are supposed to happen quickly and accurately while ensuring voluntary movement of the muscles. The reliability of transmission is aided by specialized architecture (multiple active zones, junctional folds), which has been all studied more closely throughout the last century (Hong and Etherington, 2011). According to “Annual Review of Neuroscience,” the NMJ forms in a series of steps that involve the exchange of signals amid its three important cellular components—nerve terminal, muscle fiber, and Schwann cell (Cowan, 1999). All three cells of the neuromuscular junction travel long distances to meet at the synapse(Cowan,
Now, pick one of those muscles and trace their control from the appropriate brain structure all the way to the NMJ. Be sure to include all intermediate structures, synapses, plexuses and nerves.
As a result of the contractions in the Muscle- Skeletal Longitudinal Section cells and the Muscle- Skeletal Cross Section cells, it allows your muscle to be able to contract in response to nerve stimuli. This means that the movements of most of these muscles are not involuntary, you can control them. Therefore, once the stimulation stops, the muscles relax.
The components of the nervous system involved in the skeletal muscle movement is the motor division. The motor impulse moves through the body by traveling through efferent fibers. A motor unit is a neuron and also that is where all the other muscle fibers are connected.
The structure of neuromuscular junction consists of a neuron and skeletal muscle cell. The motor neurons, which arise from the spinal cord, supply the skeletal muscle fibers. The neuromuscular junction is un-myelin nerve with a bulb shape at the endings that contract the muscle fiber. The schwann cells form a covering over the postsynaptic membrane and nerve membrane of the fiber that is located under the terminal and is categorized as a post-junction folds. The area between the folds and the bulbs create the synaptic cleft. This consists of proteins and proteoglycans. The enzyme acetylcholinesterase; exist only at high levels in the synaptic basal lamina (UMN,
Muscle contraction can be understood as the consequence of a process of transmission of action potentials from one neuron to another. A chemical called acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter released from the presynaptic neuron. As the postsynaptic cells on the muscle cell membrane receive the acetylcholine, the channels for the cations sodium and potassium are opened. These cations produce a net depolarization of the cell membrane and this electrical signal travels along the muscle fibers. Through the movement of calcium ions, the muscle action potential is taken into actual muscle contraction with the interaction of two types of proteins, actin and myosin.
Annie is a swimmer who has started to suffer from sever muscle fatigue. Muscle fatigue is a decrease in force during lengthy contractions. Skeletal Muscle is made out of fascicles, which are then made up of muscle fiber cells and those cells are made of micro fibrils (Stanfield, C, 2017). All of these items make up a motor unit, which cause muscle units to contract due to the startup of the action potential that release neurotransmitters that depolarizes the muscle membrane (Stanfield, C, 2017). The neurotransmitters are released in an area known as the neuromuscular junction (Stanfield, C, 2017). In this junction. In the junction action potentials that are entering the axon terminal starts the free movement of acetylcholine that then goes into the synaptic cleft (Stanfield, C, 2017). The acetylcholine then travels through a cleft which binds to a nicotinic receptor on the motor end plate that then opens the ion channels that leads to the freedom of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (Stanfield, C, 2017). In order to determine why she was beginning to have muscle fatigue Annie had to face a series of test. One of the tests that Annie could have taken was an Electromyography, also known as an EMG.
Afferent muscle stretch reflexes are initiated from muscle spindles9. Other afferent receptors such as joint receptors and skin sensors can generate further input8. The sum of these inputs results in reflexive movement in the absence of efferent signals from higher cortical centers7. Afferent neural input from the muscle spindle stretch receptors connected to the muslces intrafusal fibers enters the spinal cord through the dorsal horn9. They are then capable of diverging in order to take different paths and elicit several coordinated responses to a single stimulus9. The patellar reflex is a monosynaptic stretch reflex because the afferent signals synapse directly onto a motor neuron in the spinal cord9. Tapping the tendon pushes on the tissue, which activates stretch receptors within the muscle9. These afferent neural inputs from the receptors send excitatory action potentials to motor neurons in the spinal cord which, elicit the contraction of the quadriceps, extending the lower leg outwards to compensate for the stretch stimulus experienced9. In contrast, in a polysynaptic pathway, the stretch stimuli send afferent signals to the spinal cord that synapse onto inhibitory interneurons, eliciting the inhibition the antagonist (the hamstrings)9. This reciprocal innervation of the agonist and antagonist allows for the appropriate levels of tension to be developed in both muscles to elicit a smooth coordinated
The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a specialized communication synaptic area where an electrical nerve impulse is converted into an electrical stimulation, and once this process is executed, a muscle contraction is generated (Boron, Boulpaep, & Mocydiowski, 2012, p. 216). Lamentably, there are autoimmune disorders that disrupt the function of the NMJ leading to various neuromuscular disorders. In this midterm assignment, I will be presenting a rare autoimmune disease that alters the function of the NMJ resulting in a condition known as Myasthenia Gravis (MG). MG is an incessant autoimmune neuromuscular disease identified by fluctuating periods of a weakness of the skeletal muscles of the body. The National Institute of Neurological
As the message arrives at the end of the nerves, the message is transmitted to the muscles. Before the message is transmitted to the muscles it has to pass the space between the end of the nerve and the muscle, and that space is called neuromuscular junction. The message is transmitted from the brain to the end of the nerve and from the nerve to the neuromuscular junction, and when the message arrives the chemical called neurotransmitters are released.
Myasthenia Gravis affects the neuromuscular junction. Neuromuscular junction is the connection or meeting place of the nerve and a muscle fiber. The nerves communicate with the muscle fiber by telling it to move or contract. The nerves
These nerve driving forces are little electric streams which gone through the central nervous system, through the nerves and after that into the muscle tissue. These nerves that send the sign are known as motor neurones. This is something which happens in the principal snippets of exercise, so that the cerebrum realises that the muscles need to work. The neuromuscular intersection is the place the nerve meets the muscle. Here, the nerve transmits its sign to make the muscle contract. Firstly, the presynaptic membrane discharges acetycholine. This then diffuses over the crevice and produces an electrical sign. In the event that this sign is sufficiently enormous, the muscle then contracts. After the muscle has finished its appointed task, cholinesterase separates the acetycholine so that the procedure is prepared to begin once more. Motor units are gatherings of muscle strands. There is a sign sent from the central nervous system down to the motor unit to let it know regardless of whether to contract. In any case, it can just completely contract or not contract by any stretch of the imagination. Amid the principal minutes of exercise these motor units produce muscle withdrawal at various rates. A considerable lot of these gatherings all contracting in the meantime brings about one smooth muscle contracting prepared for exercise. Muscle axles then recognise when the muscle is contracted. On the off chance that they find
Damage to the neuromuscular junctions is due to an autoimmune disease called myasthenia graves. The motor end plates, which are located on skeletal muscles, are affected because there is a decrease in the amount of Ach receptors located on the motor end plate, which is connected to the neuromuscular junction. The decrease is due to the unnecessary production of antibodies, which bind to the motor end plate. This prevents Ach from binding to the receptors to carry out a synapse between the skeletal muscle and a neuron, leading to a stop or weakening of muscle contraction. The decrease in the amounts of synapses cause the skeletal muscle to lose function, become weaker, and tire more easily.
Many illnesses and diseases can affect the function of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). The diseases and illness that affect the neuromuscular junction can either affect the post-synpatic or pre-synpatic area. A disease that is known to affect the pre-synpatic neuromuscular junction complex is called autoimmune neuromyotonia, which is also known as Isaacs’ syndrome. Autoimmune neuromyotonia is an inflammatory disorder that is distinguished by abnormal nerve impulses from the peripheral nerves that result in continuous muscle fiber activity and hyperexcitability of the motor neurons(Kiernan, 2014). According to Neuromuscular junction in health and disease by N. P. Hirsch, “Isaacs’ syndrome is characterized by focal or generalized myokymia
The neuromuscular junction is where the nerve meets our muscles. To be able to move, we would need an impulse sent from our brain to our muscles. The nerve impulse gets sent to our muscles from the CNS, which leads to our muscles contracting. The nervous impulse that’s sent to the CNS is called the action potential, the impulse that sends a signal to our muscles is known as the motor neurones. For our muscles to contract we need a nervous impulse, the end of our nerves are called the synaptic knob, this hits the vesicles and releases acetylcholine. The acetylcholine then goes through the cleft (the gap between the synaptic knob and the muscle) and tells the muscles to contract, if it doesn’t go through the cleft our muscles will not contract, this is
Gamma motor neurons are a type of lower motor neuron that take part in the process of muscle contraction. Their cell bodies are located in the anterior horn of the spinal cord. Gamma motor neurons innervate intrafusal fibers, which contract only slightly. The function of intrafusal fiber contraction is not to provide force to the muscle; rather, gamma activation of the intrafusal fiber is necessary to keep the muscle spindle taut, and therefore sensitive to stretch, over a wide range of muscle lengths. If a resting muscle is stretched, the muscle spindle becomes stretched in parallel, sending signals through the primary and secondary afferents. A subsequent contraction of the muscle, however, removes the pull on the spindle, and it becomes