Action potential the muscle to contract. Muscle action potentials are provoked by the arrival of a pre-synaptic neuronal action potential at the neuromuscular junction, which is a common target for neurotoxins. Plant and fungal cells are also electrically excitable. The fundamental difference from animal action potentials is that the depolarization in plant cells is not accomplished by an uptake of positive sodium ions, but by release of negative "chloride" ions. Together with the following release of positive potassium ions, which is common to plant and animal action potentials, the action potential in plants infers, therefore, an osmotic loss of salt (KCl), whereas
Electrical conduction system of the heart well as to the endocardium at the apex of the heart, then finally to the ventricular epicardium; causing its contraction. These signals are generated rhytmically, which in turn results in the coordinated rhythmic contraction and relaxation of the heart. On the microscopic level, the wave of depolarization propagates to adjacent cells via gap junctions located on the intercalated disc. The heart is a "functional syncytium" (not to be confused with a true "syncytium" in which all the cells are fused together, sharing the same plasma membrane as in skeletal muscle). In a functional syncytium, electrical impulses propagate freely between cells