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Innervation of Muscle and Neuromuscular Transmission

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Comprehensive Human Physiology

Abstract

In contrast to the spontaneous activity displayed by smooth and heart muscle cells, striated muscle fibers of the skeletal muscle are directly controlled by central neuronal activity. Motor nerves contact muscle fibers at large chemical synapses called neuromuscular junctions or motor end plates (Fig. 15.1). The motor end plate where the nerve is connected to skeletal muscle represents the prototype of a chemical synapse in mammals. Here, each fiber of a skeletal muscle is connected to one particular motor neuron localized in the ventral horn of the spinal cord, while any given motor neuron innervates several muscle fibers. The motor neuron, together with all the muscle fibers with which it forms these synapses, is called a motor unit (see also Chaps. 45, 46, 49). The excitatory event of a motor neuron is transmitted along myelinized axons to the presynapses, where release of the synaptic transmitter acetylcoline (ACh) is induced. By opening ACh receptor channels, this release elicits a postsynaptic depolarization, which causes an action potential by opening sodium channels which depolarize the whole membrane area of the skeletal muscle fiber.

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Authors
  1. J. P. Ruppersberg
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  2. S. Herlitze
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Physiologisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 7, 79104, Freiburg, Germany

    Rainer Greger

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive N.W., T2N 4N1, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Uwe Windhorst

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ruppersberg, J.P., Herlitze, S. (1996). Innervation of Muscle and Neuromuscular Transmission. In: Greger, R., Windhorst, U. (eds) Comprehensive Human Physiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60946-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60946-6_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64619-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-60946-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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