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major reference
- In muscle: The muscle fibre
  Muscle is composed of many long cylindrical-shaped fibres from 0.02 to 0.08 mm in diameter. In some muscles the fibres run the entire length of the muscle (parallel fibres), up to several tens of centimetres long. In others a tendon extends along each…
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research by du Bois-Reymond
- In Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond
  …electrical activity in nerve and muscle fibres.
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action potential
- In action potential
  …a nerve cell (neuron) or muscle cell. In the neuron an action potential produces the nerve impulse, and in the muscle cell it produces the contraction required for all movement. Sometimes called a propagated potential because a wave of excitation is actively transmitted along the nerve or muscle fibre, an…
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reflexes
- In reflex
  …other nerve cells that activate muscle cells (or effectors), which perform the reflex action. In most cases, however, the basic physiological mechanism behind a reflex is more complicated than the reflex arc theory would suggest. Additional nerve cells capable of communicating with other parts of the body (beyond the receptor…
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sensory reception
- In human sensory reception: Nerve function
  … spindles consist of small, fine muscle fibres around which sensory fibre endings are wrapped; (2) Golgi tendon organs consist of sensory nerve fibres that terminate in a branching encapsulated within the tendon; (3) joint receptors (as in the knee) consist of “spray-type” Ruffini endings and Golgi-type and Pacinian corpuscles within…
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