Give a brief description in your own words of the objectives and aims of this practical.
The aim of this practical was to understand how the autonomic nervous system has an effect
In the ileum. Through this, we can delve deeper by understanding how nerves, through the actions
Of various neurotransmitters affect the motility of the gastrointesital tract. Furthermore, we can investigate
The effects of drugs, and their uses in replicating effects of autonomic neurotransmitters as well as
The way certain drugs can interfere with autonomic neurotransmitters and how they interact with
Their target tissues.
A. RESPONSES TO NERVE STIMULATION
Attach a copy of your experimental recordings showing a period of spontaneous contractions and the response to stimulating the nerves at 20 Hz with both a voltage that produced only a modest response and the voltage that produced the maximal response.
1) Briefly describe the response of the ileum when it is unstimulated and during stimulation of the nerves.
When the ileum is unstimulated, the contraction peaks at around 8mV and goes down to around
1 mV. This is repeated steadily. During Stimulation, the ileum contractility depends on the voltage and
Frequency. For 5v stimulation, the contractility of the ileum rapidly declines.
2) What is the frequency of the regular spontaneous contractions of the ileum? What causes these spontaneous contractions?
14Hz. The longitudinal muscle layers cause these spontaneous contractions.
Attach a copy of your experimental recordings showing the response to stimulating the nerves with the maximal voltage at both 5 Hz and 50 Hz.
3) Explain the effect of altering stimulus frequency on the response of the ileum to nerve stimulation.
Increasing the stimulus frequency decreases the ileum contractility (Mv) At 5hz there was a minimal
Decrease in contractility. However, when the frequency was increased to 50Hz, there was a large