1 Semester

5 Hours per Week

Hawthorn

HET102 Introductory Physiology and either HET124 Energy and Motion or HET182

Nil

Credit Points: 12.5 Credit Points

Related Course/s:

Aims & Objectives:

To establish an understanding of the physiology of cellular processes by the application of physics principles.

Teaching Methods:

Lectures, tutorials and practical work

Assessment:

Assignments, examinations, pracs

Content:

• Membrane phenomena: Structure and function of membranes and membrane channels, modes of transport of ions and non-electrolytes; Diffusive processes; Fick's laws, Nernst and Donnan equilibrium, osmosis, Goldman equation, Ussing flux ratio equation 'pore' hypothesis.
• Properties of electrodes: Measurement of intracellular potentials; electrode processes; half cell potentials – overpotentials, high impedance, microelectrodes, recording arrangements. Electrical and volume conduction properties of nerves; cable model.
• Experimental techniques: voltage clamping and patch clamping, Hodgkin-Huxley model. The action potential: strength-duration curves, neuropathies.
• Pre-and post-synaptic processes: inhibitors and agonists; statistical analysis of mepps; receptors and neurotransmitters: types and mode of operation; inhibitory and excitatory neurons, integrative functions of soma.
• Muscle: length tension relationships, Hill equation, ultrastructure, excitation-contraction coupling, sliding filament theory, metabolic aspects, E-C coupling in smooth muscle, pathophysiology of muscle, electromyography; Cellular basis of muscle fatique. Performance consideration; metabolism and energetics.

Reading Materials:

Martini, F, Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology, 4th edn, Prentice Hall International, 1998.
Guyton, AC & Hall, Textbook of Medical Physiology, 9th edn, Saunders, 1996.
Plonsey, RL & Barr, R, Biolelectric Phenomena, Plenum, 1988.
Weiss, TF, Cellular Biophysics, Vol. 2, MIT Press, 1996.