Excitation of the Skeletal Muscle Fiber Introduction to the Neuromuscular Junction and the Excitation of Skeletal Muscle Fiber

Excitation of the Skeletal Muscle Fiber
Skeletal muscle fiber contraction begins with
excitation of the fiber by a somatic motor neuron. The nerve signal must first cross the neuromuscular junction to excite the muscle fiber. Excitation depends on a complex sequence of events that is reviewed in Chapter 10 of your textbook. This week’s assignment will give you practice describing these events.
Begin your paper with a description of the neuromuscular junction. What are the main structural features of the motor neuron and skeletal muscle fiber where the two meet? Then address the following topics:
Starting with an action potential traveling down the axon of the motor neuron, how is the signal transmitted across the synaptic cleft to the muscle fiber?
How is an End Plate Potential generated?
How is an action potential initiated and propagated to the sarcoplasmic reticulum?
What happens at the sarcoplasmic reticulum that leads to a contraction?
How does the structure of a skeletal muscle fiber enable contraction to occur?
Requirements:
Your paper should be 2 pages in length, excluding title and reference pages.
Include at least two scholarly references, in addition to the course textbook. Also cite your sources in the body of the paper.
Conform to the APA guidelines in the CSU Global Writing Center.
The CSU Global Library is a good place to find these references.