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- Effectors are the parts of the body that
- carry out the body's actions in response to
- stimuli. The primary effectors in the human
- body are the muscles, which are tissues with
- elongated cells specialized for contraction.
- Muscle tissues are governed by the nervous
- system, but, although muscles form the last
- segment of reflex arcs, unlike sensory
- receptors and conductor cells, muscles are
- not part of the nervous system. There are
- three types of muscle tissue: striated muscle,
- smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle.
- Striated muscle is characterized by its
- striated pattern of alternating light and dark
- bands. This pattern directly results from the
- structure of the contractile units of the muscle.
- The individual cells of striated muscle, called
- fibers, have many nuclei and are also striated.
- Each fiber is made up of many individual
- contractile units, called myofibrils,
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