What is a Muscle?

What are the three types of muscles in the muscular system?

Skeletal, Cardiac, and Smooth

What is a skeletal muscle?

Its controlled by the conscious mind and moves the bones of the skeleton so the animal can move around. AKA: voluntary striated muscle.

What is a cardiac muscle?

Striated, involuntary muscle that is

found in only one place in the body (The heart) 

What is a smooth muscle?

Non-striated / Doesn't have the striped apperance under the microscope. It is found all over the body in places such as the eyes,  air passage ways, lungs, stomach, intestines, urinary bladder, blood vessles & reproductive tract. It carries out most of

 the unconscious internal movements

 What are tendons?

Fiborous connective tissue bands

 that connect skeletal muscles to bones.

What are Aponeuroses?

A broad sheet of fibrous

connective tissue that attaches certain

 muscles to bones or toother muscles.

Most prominent is the

Linea Alba on the ventral midline.

What is the origin of the muscle?

The more stable of the attachment sites of the muscle.

 When a muscle contracts its origin of attachment

 does not move much. It provides stability so

that the insertion of the muscle can move bones

 or other structures.

What is the insertion of the muscle?

The site that undergoes most of the

 movement when a muscle contracts.

What action does a muscle do?

When stimulated by a nerve impulse, a muscle

 contracts (shortens) By pulling on its attachment

sites (its origin & insertion) the contraction of a muscle

produces movement of bones and other structures.

What is a prime mover (or agonist) ?

A muscle or muscle group that

directly produces a desired movement.

What is an antagonist?

A muscle or muscle group that directly

 opposes the action of a prime mover. Through partial contractions they can help smooth out the

 movements of prime movers or they can

contract forcefully at the same time as the prime mover

What is a synergist?

A muscle that contracts at the same

 time as a prime mover and assists it in

 carrying out its actions.

What is a Fixator?

These muscles stabilize a joint

so that other muscles can produce

effective movements of other joints.

What does the term

"rectus" mean

straight

 What does the "number of heads"

or "divisons" mean

The number of attachment sites

a muscle has to its origin

What does the "cephal" mean 

Head

what does the "cep" stand for

Number of heads

examples:

bi"cep"= two heads

tri"cep"= three heads

quadri"cep"=four heads

Cutaneous (skin) muscles

Thin, broad, and superficial  

"Skin Muscles" thin muscles in the

connective tissue beneath the skin.

When it contracts it causes the

skin to twitch.

What do the muscles of the head do?

Control facial expression, enable chewing

 (mastication), move sensory structures

such as the eyes or ears.

What do the muscles of the neck do?

Help support the head and

allow the neck to flex, extend,

 and move the head laterally.

What is the masseter muscle?

It is located in the cheek area of the skull,

it is the most powerful of the chewing muscles.

 Its main action is to close the jaw.

What are the two main muscles

that extend (raise) the head and neck?

Splenius and the trapezius muscles

Located: on the dorsal

 (upper) part of the neck

What is the brachiocephalicus muscle?

sounds like   Bray-ke-o-seph-cal-i-cus

A muscle that extends the head and neck

and also pulls the front leg forward.

 It is fairly large, straplike, that runs from the

 proximal area of the humerus

up to the base of the skull.

What is the sternocephalicus muscle?

sounds like

 sterno-sef-al-ic-us

 Smaller straplike muscle that extends

      from the sternum to the base of the skull 

       and acts to flex (or lower) the head and neck.