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The Heart Of Cardiac Muscle Essay

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INTRODUCTION The cardiac muscle, more commonly known as the heart muscle, is quite different from the more familiar know skeletal muscle. Unlike skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle is able to conduct its own electrical impulses allowing it to contract and relax spontaneously without being told to by the brain or any other organ (Marieb, Mitchell, p. 512). This is due to the constant leakage of sodium ions into the mainly potassium filled cells which then eventually lead to action potentials causing the heart to beat rhythmically (Mariev, Mitchell, p.512) this rhythm is more commonly referred to as one’s heartbeat. From this BIOPAC laboratory, the student(s) should learn how different stimuli will affect a resting heart rate. Due to the fact that cardiac muscle is able to create action potentials on its own, a change in chemical, temperature, and ionic balance causes the heart to react differently and change its rhythm of beats by either slowing down or speeding up. More specifically, by saturating the heart with histamine the heart rate should speed up, while pilocarpine will cause the heart to substantially slow, and finally the addition of epinephrine will cause the resting heart rate to speed up.
MATERIALS ANDN METHODS
Activity 4: Chemical Agents MATERIALS
• Dissecting Instruments and Tray
• Disposable gloves and bag
• Frog Ringer’s solution with dropper
• Frogs (double pithed by instructor)
• Thread
• (Marieb, Mitchell, p.511)
Activity 4: Chemical Agents METHOD Before

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