Anatomy & Physiology › Section Q · The heart › Topic Q.2
Cardiac muscle and electrical activity
The heart starts every beat itself, without a signal from the brain. A small network of specialised muscle cells sets the rhythm and times the chambers, and an ECG lets us watch that electrical activity from the skin.
In this topic
- Muscle that excites itself
- The conduction pathway
- Timing: the AV delay
- Pacemaker potentials
- Backup pacemakers
- The contractile cell action potential
- Why the heart cannot tetanise
- Reading the ECG
- Worked example: heart rate from an ECG
- Worked example: a strip with too many P waves
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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