Smooth muscle: Learn how your gut contracts!

In this simulation, you will learn how smooth muscle is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. You will perform some experiments using a rat intestine model and find out how different neurotransmitters and drugs affect the contraction of smooth muscle. Remember that you can access the theory pages in your LabPad at any moment while playing the simulation.

Following is a list of all the relevant theory pages to boost your learning:

• Muscle tissue

• Smooth muscle

  • Nervous control of smooth muscle

    • Sympathetic control of smooth muscle

    • Parasympathetic control of smooth muscle

    • Neurotransmitters

      • Acetylcholine

      • Norepinephrine

  • Smooth muscle contraction mechanism

    • Smooth muscle in the gastrointestinal tract

    • Myenteric plexus

• Experimental setup

  • Sample

  • Tyrode solution

  • Reading myograph data

• Effect of drugs

  • Physostigmine

  • Atropine

• Action potential