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I wanted to share this amazingly cool experiment I did in my physiology lab this week! We examined cardiac muscle in a frog. It is important to note that this experiment was completely humane and the frogs were brain-dead with their spinal cords severed, so they experience no pain or feeling in this experiment.

In my lab we tested the electrical activity of cardiac muscle and we also observed the effects of certain drugs like epinephrine (adrenaline) and acetylcholine on the heart.
-Epinephrine (adrenaline)- released during fight-or-flight sympathetic activity, speeds heart rate up
whereas
- Acetylcholine- released during rest-and-digest parasympathetic activation, slows heart rate down.

It was amazing to see the heart muscle actually respond to the effects of these drugs in the same way our own body responds to them internally.