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Nervous pathway to the Neuromuscular (NMJ)

By: HWC, Views: 8258

• A nervous impulse, also called an action potential, starts from the brain or spinal cord to signal skeletal muscle cell contraction. Action potentials continue along a motor neuron to the muscle cell. • The signal to contract must cross a synapse - the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) - betwe...

Fertilization and Development

By: HWC, Views: 8074

• Fertilization is the process by which the two gametes from the parents fuse their genetic material to form a new individual (zygote). • Fertilization requires that sperm cells swimming through the uterine tube contact a secondary oocyte. • Once sperm penetrate the secondary oocyte's ...

Graded potentials - electrical characteristics and types

By: HWC, Views: 7983

• A graded potential occurs when a gated channel is opened or closed, altering ion flow through the membrane. • Changes in ion and charge distributions cause voltage changes to the resting membrane potential. • The strength of the stimulus determines the number of gated channels affect...

Language Areas Animation

By: Administrator, Views: 10887

Specific language areas of the brain. Many cortical (and non-cortical!) regions are involved in language processing. The primary language pathway begins in Wernicke’s area (posterior temporal lobe), which receives information from the auditory and visual cortices and assigns meaning (= lang...

Nucleic acid digestion - brush border enzymes, end products & transport mechanism

By: HWC, Views: 7508

• Further digestion occurs at the microvilli (brush border) of the epithelial cells of the villi in the small intestine. • Two brush border enzymes complete nucleic acid digestion: • Phosphatases, which catalyze the cleavage of a phosphate to form a nucleoside (nitrogenous base and pent...

What Are Carbohydrates? Importance of Carbs & High Carb Food

By: HWC, Views: 7814

We hear a lot about carbohydrates in the news. Everybody seems to be on a low-carb diet. The news media often has stories on this diet fad, and companies are busy producing products with reduced carbohydrates. What's this fascination with carbohydrates? In a word: "Diet." The fact is that carb...

Digestion Animation

By: Administrator, Views: 11348

The mouth or oral cavity is formed by: - The hard and soft palates at the top or roof - the cheeks - the tongue - the lips Contains the teeth and salivary glands. The gingivae (gums) surround the necks of the teeth. The lingual frenulum is a thin fold of mucous membrane that connects...

Neurosynapse Animation

By: Administrator, Views: 10686

In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell. Synapses are essential to neuronal function: neurons are cells that are specialized to pass signals to individual tar...

Summation - defined, spatial, temporal & AP generation or not

By: HWC, Views: 7647

If several presynaptic end bulbs release their neurotransmitter at about the same time, the combined effect may generate a nerve impulse due to summation Summation may be spatial or temporal • A typical neuron may have thousands of synapses. A corresponding number of postsynaptic membrane ...