Video Transcript
There are three major types of
muscle tissue in the human body: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth. Which type of muscle is primarily
involved in involuntary movements that aid processes like digestion and blood flow
through the arteries?
Muscles are fibrous tissues in our
bodies that can contract and relax to aid movement. There are three main types of
muscle tissue in the human body: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle. This question is asking us to work
out which type of muscle is being described, so let’s take a look at the features of
each of these types of muscle to answer the question correctly.
Skeletal muscles are named as such
because they’re attached to the bones of the skeleton. They are categorized as voluntary
muscles as they are under conscious control to allow voluntary movement of a certain
part of the body, for example, limbs like our arms and legs. They are sometimes called striated
muscles due to the striped appearance of the individual muscle fibers. As the question is describing the
type of muscle primarily involved in involuntary movements, it cannot be describing
skeletal muscle.
Smooth muscle and cardiac muscle
are both examples of involuntary muscle, which means that they are not under our
conscious control and we cannot simply decide to stop them from working. Cardiac muscles are only found in
the heart, and the involuntary movement enables the heart to beat continuously. Smooth muscles are found in many
different organs, such as in the artery walls to help blood move through these blood
vessels. Smooth muscle is also found in the
walls of hollow organs, such as the esophagus, stomach, and the intestines, to aid
in digestion by moving food through the digestive tract.
As the question is describing a
type of involuntary muscle that aids digestion and blood flow through the arteries,
we can deduce the correct answer. The type of muscle being described
is smooth muscle.
