Describe the structure and function of striated muscle, commenting on the type and source of nervous stimulation striated muscle receives. How is striated muscle attached to the skeleton?
Striated muscle is characterized by its striated pattern of alternating light and dark bands. The individual cells of striated muscle, called fibers, have many nuclei and are also striated. Bundles of fibers are bound together by connective tissue; the bundles, in turn, are bound together to form muscle. Striated muscle, which is the most common type of muscle as well as the most common type of tissue in vertebrates, is stimulated by the somatic nervous system. Each cell of a muscle is excited by only one nerve fiber: Contraction occurs when nerve impulses are present, and relaxation occurs when nerve impulses are absent. Striated muscles perform adjustments to an organism in response to its external environment. The muscles effect change through contraction by bending the skeletal structure, to which the muscles are attached by tendons, at moveable joints in the structure.
