Nerve and Muscle

Nerve and Muscle is an introductory textbook for students taking university courses in physiology, cell biology or preclinical medicine. The first edition was highly acclaimed as a readable and concise account of how nerves and muscles work. The book begins with a discussion of the nature of nerve impulses. These electrical events can be understood in terms of the flow of ions through molecular channels in the nerve cell membrane. Then the view changes to consideration of synaptic transmission: cell or muscle fibre with which it makes contact. Again ionic channels are involved, but now they are opened by special chemicals released from the nerve cell terminals. The final chapters discuss the nature of muscular contraction, including especially the relations between cellular structure and contractile function. This new edition includes much new material, especially on the molecular nature and characteristics of single ionic channels, while retaining a straightforward exposition of the fundamentals of the subject.