Lably
Skip to content

Extrafusal muscle fiber

  • 1 min read
  • 1 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Skeletal muscle, Alpha motor neuron and Action potential

Lab · Class 9TissuesLab · Class 9Inside Tissues — 3D Virtual TourLab · Class 8–12Using a MicroscopeLabForce Machines

Each alpha motor neuron and the extrafusal muscle fibers innervated by it make up a motor unit. The connection between the alpha motor neuron and the extrafusal muscle fiber is a neuromuscular junction, where the neuron's signal, the action potential, is transduced to the muscle fiber by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

Extrafusal muscle fibers are not to be confused with intrafusal muscle fibers, which are innervated by sensory nerve endings in central noncontractile parts and by gamma motor neurons in contractile ends and thus serve as a sensory proprioceptor.

Extrafusal muscle fibers can be generated in vitro (in a dish) from pluripotent stem cells through directed differentiation. This allows study of their formation and physiology.

More in Human body

Anatomical terms of locationStandard terms for unambiguous description of relative placement of body partsPrefrontal cortexPart of the brain responsible for personality, decision-making, and social behaviorPubMedOnline biomedical databaseMucous membraneProtective layer that lines the interior of hollow organsNeuroimagingSet of techniques to measure and visualize aspects of the nervous systemNeuroscientistIndividual who studies neuroscience