Everything about Muscle Tone totally explained
In
physiology,
medicine, and
anatomy,
muscle tone (aka
residual muscle tension or
tonus) is the continuous and passive partial
contraction of the muscles. It helps maintain
posture, and it declines during
REM sleep. It isn't to be confused with the concept of
toning in
physical exercise.
Purpose
Unconscious
nerve impulses maintain the muscles in a partially contracted state. If a sudden
pull or stretch occurs, the body responds by automatically increasing the muscle's
tension, a reflex which helps guard against danger as well as helping to maintain
balance.
The presence of near-continuous innervation makes it clear that tonus describes a "default" or "steady state" condition. There is, for the most part, no actual "rest state" insofar as activation is concerned.
In terms of skeletal muscle, both the
extensor and
flexor muscles, under normal
enervation maintain a constant tone while "at rest" that maintains a normal posture.
Cardiac muscle and
smooth muscle, although not directly connected to the skeleton, also have tonus in the sense that although their contractions are not matched with those of antagonist muscles; their non-contractive state is characterized by (sometimes random) enervation.
Pathological tonus
Physical disorders can result in abnormally low (
hypotonia) or high (
hypertonia) muscle tone. Another form of hypertonia is
Paratonia, which is associated with
dementia.
Tonus in surgery
In
ophthalmology, tonus may be a central consideration in
eye surgery, as in the manipulation of
extraocular muscles to repair
strabismus. Tonicity aberrations are associated with many diseases of the eye (for example
Adie syndrome).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Muscle Tone'.
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