CH 9 PRACTICE EXAM

1. Explain how muscle fibers are stimulated to contract

2. How does cross-bridge cycling help explain the sliding filament theory?
3. Describe how action potential is generated
4. Compare and contrast skeletal and cardiac muscle
5. What happens in excitation-contraction coupling that leads to cross-bridge cycling?
6. What causes a twitch and what happens during it?
7. What roll does ATP play in muscle contraction? Explain.
8. If a myofiber were unable to replenish spent ATP, what happens to the myofiber?
9. How are smooth, graded contraction of skeletal muscle produced?
10. Compare and contrast isometric and isotonic contractions
11. What influences force, velocity, and duration of a contraction?
12. Why are the skeletal muscle fibers important? What are they?
13. Compare and contrast smooth and skeletal muscle
14. What are the changes that occur in the skeletal muscle with age?
15. Skeletal muscles have two special inclusions of skeletal muscle cells and how would they
be useful to the cell?
16. A patient is admitted for electroconvulsive treatment (ECT). The physician orders the
neuromuscular blocking agent (metubine) to reduce trauma by relaxing skeletal
muscles. Explain the process of muscle contraction and how a neuromuscular blocking
agent such as metubine would interfere with muscle contraction.
17. Define physiologic muscle fatigue
18. Compare red and white muscles relative to their speed of action and endurance
19. Briefly, what causes rigor mortis? And why does it set in several hours after a person
dies?
20. What ultimately stops muscle stimulation when the motor neuron ceases firing?
21. A long-distance runner is about to enter a 5-mile race. Beforehand, he spends several
minutes warming up. During the warm-up period, the phenomenon of treppe is
occurring in body muscles being used. What is treppe and why does it occur?
22. What are the parts of the skeletal muscle triad and what are their function?
23. Briefly explain the sources of energy for a one-minute sustained muscle contraction
24. How is it that norepinephrine (NE) can inhibit smooth muscle action in airways, yet
stimulate contractions in smooth muscles everywhere else in the body?
25. How do the three muscle types respond to being stretched?
26. Botulinum toxin is a lethal toxin produced by bacteria. Interestingly, this same toxin can
also be used to treat migraine headaches and to reduces wrinkles. How does botulinum
toxin effect skeletal muscle contraction? Smooth muscle contraction?
27. Sandra wanted to assess the maximal strength of her biceps brachii in order to
determine the proper weight to select for her “New Year’s Eve Resolution” fitness
program. However, she as never lifted weights before. Her trainer gave her instructions
on how to assess her strength for selected muscle groups. She walked over to the
dumbbell rack in her gym and started at the lowest weight. She performed the “curl”
exercise 1 time and then set the weight back down. She repeated this action (with 60
 sec rest intervals) with each weight until she was unable to lift a weight. The heaviest
amount of weight lifted was classified as her max. Explain the regulation of force as
Sandra performed this set of lifts.
28. Help Jimmy understand where there is an optimal range of muscle length.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

29. At resting membrane potential, which of the following accurately describes the
relative conditions around the plasma membrane?
a. More sodium inside, more potassium outside
b. More potassium inside, more sodium outside
c. The inside of the cell is more positive compared to the outside of the cell
d. More proteins inside, more sodium and potassium outside

30. What happens during the sliding filament theory?

a. Thick filaments slide across thin filaments
b. Myosin slide across actin
c. Thin filaments slide across thick filaments
d. Troponin slides across tropomyosin

31. Which of the following surrounds the individual muscle fiber?

a. Epimysium
b. Perimysium
c. Endomysium
d. Periosteum

32. The sites where the motor nerve impulse is transmitted from the nerve endings to the
skeletal muscle cell membranes are the
a. Neuromuscular junctions
b. Sarcomeres
c. Myofilaments
d. Z discs

33. A smooth, sustained contraction resulting from very rapid stimulation of the muscle,
in which no evidence of relaxation is seen, is called?
a. Twitch
b. Temporal summation
c. Multiple motor unit summation
d. Fused tetanus

34. Characteristics of isometric contractions include all but

a. Shortening
b. Increased muscle tension throughout the contraction phase
c. Absence of shortening
 d. Used in resistance training

35. The ions that enter the skeletal muscle cell during the generation of an action
potential are
a. Calcium ions
b. Chloride ions
c. Sodium ions
d. Potassium ions

36. Myoglobin has a special function in muscle tissue. What is it?

a. Break down glycogen
b. Produce the end plate potential
c. Hold a reserve supply of oxygen in the muscle
d. Is a protein involved in the direct phosphorylation of ADP

37. The smooth muscle type found in the walls of digestive and urinary system organs
that exhibit gap junctions and pacemaker cells is
a. Multiunit
b. Unitary
c. Fused
d. Unfused

38. Motor units are composed of

a. Myofilaments and cross bridges
b. Sarcomeres and myofibers
c. Neurons and sarcomeres
d. Neurons and muscle fibers

39. Muscle fiber types are classified according to two characteristics. What are they?
a. The speed of contraction and metabolic pathways used for ATP synthesis
b. The type of protein in actin and myosin in the fiber
c. The appearance and function of the fiber
d. The type of bands and plasma membrane in the fiber

40. Which muscle cells have the ability to regenerate?

a. Cardiac
b. No muscle can regenerate
c. Skeletal
d. Smooth

41. Most skeletal muscles contain

a. Muscle fibers of same type
b. A predominance of fast oxidative fibers
c. A predominance of slow oxidative fibers
 d. A mixture of fibers

42. Which of the following would be recruited later in muscle stimulation when
contractile strength increases?
a. Many small motor units with the ability to stimulate other motor units
b. Large motor units with small, highly excitable neurons
c. Motor units with the longest muscle fiber
d. Motor units with larger, less excitable neurons

43. Excitation-contraction coupling requires which of the following substances?

a. ATP and glucose
b. ATP only
c. Ca2+ and ATP
d. Ca2+ only

44. Which of the following is a factor that affects the velocity and duration of muscle
contraction?
a. Size of the muscle fibers stimulated
b. Load on the fiber
c. Number of muscle fibers stimulated
d. Muscle length

45. Following the arrival of the stimulus at a skeletal muscle cell, there is a short period
during which the events of E-C coupling occurs. What is this period called?
a. Latent
b. Refractory
c. Contraction
d. Relaxation

46. What controls the force of muscle contraction?

a. Wave summation
b. Treppe
c. Concentric contractions
d. Multi-motor unit summation

47. Smooth muscles that act like skeletal muscles but are controlled by autonomic nerves
and hormones are
a. White muscles
b. Red muscles
c. Multi-unit muscles
d. Single-unit muscles

48. Rigor mortis occurs because

a. No ATP is available to release attached actin and myosin molecules
 b. Sodium ions leak out of the muscle
c. The cells are dead
d. Proteins are beginning to break down, thus preventing a flow of calcium ions

49. When a muscle is unable to respond to stimuli temporarily, it is in which of these

following periods?
a. Refractory period
b. Latent period
c. Relaxation period
d. Fatigue period

50. Which of the following statements is true?

a. Cardiac muscle cells are found in the heart and large blood vessels
b. Cardiac muscle cells have many nuclei
c. Striated muscle cells are long and cylindrical with many nuclei
d. Smooth muscle cells have T tubules

51. What is the most distinguishing characteristic of muscle tissue?

a. The diversity of activity of muscle tissue
b. The sarcoplasmic reticulum
c. The ability to transform chemical energy into mechanical energy
d. The design of the muscle fibers

52. Hypothetically, if a muscle were stretched to the point where thick and thin filaments
no longer overlapped, what would happen?
a. ATP consumption would increase because the sarcomere is “trying” to contract
b. Maximum force production would result because the muscle has a maximum
range of travel
c. Cross bridge attachment would be optimum because of all the free binding sites
on actin
d. No muscle tension could be generated

53. The mechanism of contraction in smooth muscle is different from skeletal muscle in
that
a. Actin and myosin interact by the sliding filament mechanism
b. The site of calcium regulation differs
c. The trigger for contraction is a rise in intracellular calcium
d. ATP energizes the sliding process

54. Which of the choices below does not describe how recovery oxygen uptake (oxygen
deficit) restores metabolic conditions?
a. Replaces the oxygen removed from myoglobin
b. Increases the level of lactic acid in the muscle
c. Converts lactic acid back into glycogen stores in the liver
 d. Resynthesizes creatine phosphate and ATP in muscle fibers

55. The oxygen-binding protein found in muscle cells is

a. ATP
b. Myoglobin
c. Hemoglobin
d. Immunoglobin

56. Which of the following is not a way muscle contractions can be graded?
a. Changing the frequency
b. Changing the type of neurotransmitter released by motor neuron
c. Changing the type of muscle fibers involved
d. Changing the strength of the stimulus

57. When does temporal summation not occur?

a. When the second stimulus arrives before repolarization is complete
b. When the second stimulus arrives before depolarization is complete
c. When the second stimulus arrives before hyperpolarization is complete
d. It always occurs

TRUE OR FALSE
58. Once a motor neuron has fired, all the muscle fibers in a muscle contract
59. A motor neuron and all the muscle cells that it stimulates are referred to as a motor end
plate
60. During isotonic contraction, the heavier the load, the faster the velocity of contraction
61. During isometric contraction, the energy used appears as movement
62. Muscle contraction will always promote movement of body parts regardless of how they
are attached
63. Although there are no sarcomeres, smooth muscle still possesses thick and thin filament
64. Muscle tone is the small amount of tautness or tension in the muscle due to weak,
involuntary contractions of its motor units
65. Contractures are a result of a total lack of ATP
66. Every cell has a negative resting membrane potential
67. All striated muscle is innervated by a neuron
68. Fused tetanus rarely occurs
MATCHING

A. Slow (oxidative), fatigue-

resilient fibers

B. Fast (oxidative or
glycolytic), fatigable
fibers
1. Depends on oxygen delivery and aerobic mechanisms
2. Have very fast-acting myosin ATPases and depend
upon anaerobic metabolism during contraction
3. Red fibers, the smallest of the fiber types
4. Contain abundant amounts of glycogen
5. A relatively high percentage are found in successful
marathon runners
6. Abundant in muscles used to maintain posture

1. The stimulus above which no stronger contraction A. Wave summation

can be elicited, because all motor units are firing in
the muscle
2. The phenomenon in which the contraction strength B. Multiple motor
unit summation
of a muscle increases, due to increased Ca2+
availability and enzyme efficiency during the warm-
up C. Tetanus
3. Continued sustained smooth contraction due to rapid
stimulation 1. Serves as the actual “trigger” for muscle contraction
4. The situation in which contractions become stronger D. ofTreppe
by removing the inhibition the troponin molecules
2. A
due to stimulation before complete relaxation neurotransmitter released as motor end plates by
occurs
the axon terminals
5. How a smooth increase in muscle force is produced
3. Diffusion across the cell E. Maximalresults
membrane stimulus
in
depolarization
4. Activate synaptic vesicles in axon terminals
5. Used to convert ADP to ATP by transfer of a high-
energy phosphate group. A reserve high-energy
compound A. Sodium-potassium
6. Destroys acetylcholine ions
B. Acetylcholine

C. Calcium ions

D. Acetylcholinesterase

E. Creatine phosphate