Main description:

This well-established and acclaimed textbook introducing the rapidly growing field of nerve and muscle function has been completely revised and updated. Written with undergraduate students in mind, it begins with the fundamental principles demonstrated by the pioneering electrophysiological experiments on cell excitability. This leads to more challenging material recounting recent discoveries from applying modern biochemical, genetic, physiological and biophysical, experimental and mathematical analysis. The resulting interdisciplinary approach conveys a unified contemporary understanding of nerve and skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle function at the molecular, cellular and systems levels. Emphasis on important strategic experiments throughout clarifies the basis for our current scientific views, highlights the excitement and challenge of biomedical discovery, and suggests directions for future advances. These fundamental ideas are then translated into discussions of related disease conditions and their clinical management. Now including colour illustrations, it is an invaluable text for students of physiology, neuroscience, cell biology and biophysics.

Contents:

Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Structural organization of the nervous system; 2. Resting and action potentials; 3. Background ionic homeostasis of excitable cells; 4. Membrane permeability changes during excitation; 5. Voltage-gated ion channels; 6. Cable theory and saltatory conduction; 7. Neuromuscular transmission; 8. Synaptic transmission in the nervous system; 9. The mechanism of contraction in skeletal muscle; 10. The activation of skeletal muscle; 11. Excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle; 12. Contractile function in skeletal muscle; 13. Cardiac muscle; 14. Ion channel function and cardiac arrhythmogenesis; 15. Smooth muscle; Further reading; References; Index.