Picking up a Pencil The nerves and how they help. By: Harold Lee

Overview (how it happens) The process of picking up a pencil involves the brain sending electronic transmissions through the nerves directly to the muscles of the hand causing the hand muscle to contract this causes the fingers to close and your hand to grip the pencil.

The nerve cell is the communication between the brain and the muscle during the process of picking up a pencil or almost any process for that matter. The nerve takes the signal from the brain and communicates the message all the way to the muscle by a process called synapse the allows the nerve to pass this charge to another and this process continues until it final reaches the muscle cells.

The Nerve Process The motion of the muscle is possible through the synapse of the nerve cells. That connect the brain to that section of muscles. The process is controlled by the nerves interacting with skeletal muscle in the hand. By changing the muscles charge and forcing them to contract.

A nerve fiber connected to the muscle tissue causes the muscle to twitch or contract based on the number of nerve impulses that occur the more impulses the longer the muscle will stay contracted after the nerves and brain stop sending impulses the muscle will relax and return to a rested state.

Chemicals used by the nerve Acetylcholine (ACh) activates its own specialized receptor in the muscle membrane and this leads to a change in charge between the inside and outside of a muscle cell. The resulting changes in muscle membrane charge cause the opening of another specialized ion channel which sends the nerve’s signal throughout the muscle membrane, activating still more ion channels, leading to contraction.

Chemicals used continued The nerve cells charge causes the muscle to release calcium that the muscle normally keeps stored when the calcium is released it interacts with the muscle fibers causing the muscle to contract

Bibliography Both pictures: /muscle_contraction.html /muscle_contraction.html Information: notes and /muscle_contraction.html /muscle_contraction.html