Name: Juan Leontius Goo 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.

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 Data 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 Data to
record your answer in the lab report.

You answered: 8.5 volts

Experiment Data:

Post-lab Quiz Results

You scored 100% by answering 6 out of 6 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).

6. A sufficiently strong electrical stimulus applied to an isolated, mounted skeletal muscle

induces the development ofmuscle force, or muscle tension. Which of the following statements
concerning this observation is true? You correctly answered: c. The electrical stimulus mimics
acetylcholine release at a neuromuscular junction

Review Sheet Results

1. Describe the effect of increasing stimulus voltage on isolated skeletal muscle. Specifically,
what happened to the muscleforce generated with stronger electrical stimulations and why did this
change occur? How well did the results compare with your prediction?

You did not answer this question.

2. How is this change in whole-muscle force achieved in vivo?

You did not answer this question.

3. What happened in the isolated skeletal muscle when the maximal voltage was applied?

You did not answer this question.