Monday 14 February 2011

Electrical Activity of the Human Heart

A brief description I wrote detailing the electrical activity of the heart:

The heart is said to be myogenic, in that it is self stimulating. This is due to the cells of the sinoatrial node being designed to release electrical impulses at set intervals. These impulses spread rapidly through the heart muscle cells of the atria using gap junctions, until they reach the non-conducting connective tissues, where a 0.1 second delay occurs. During which, the atria contract, forcing blood into the ventricles and the impulses gather around the atrioventricular node. From here, impulses travel through the bundle of His to the Apex of the heart and then, move upwards and outwards through purkyne tissues, causing the ventricles to contract with force.

The non-conducting connective tissue is vital for causing the delay because it allows the atria to contract before the ventricles, ensuring the one-way flow of blood through the heart.

12 comments:

  1. I suppose I'll follow that and learn new things

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  2. The heart is truly fascinating.

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  3. I lost interest in science while I was in highschool, maybe if I had learned this type of material I would've been more interested. Keep up the good posts.

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  4. The human body is an amazing thing. The fact that someone else's heart tissue cells can "sync" with your heart beat is absolutely unbelievable.

    Following!

    Garage Zoku

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  5. The heart is very interesting. If you run an ECG in different directions across the heart you get different graphs, because of the electrical activity.

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  6. new to me... all i knew was that if you curl up your fist its the size of your heart

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  7. The human body has always fascinated me! But human anatomy in HS let me know it is a little too complex for me, so I stick with computers! Following!

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  8. Very appropriate consider Valentine's Day deals with the "heart more than any other holiday.

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  9. great! now i can't stop thinking about my hearbeat. following.

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  10. I've always been fascinated by this sort of thing

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