Correspondingly, studies of postural tone can help us to elucidate the mechanisms of tonic neural activity. Many promise muscle tone through diet or exercise, but the actual science points out that no specific diet or workout routine can directly cause muscle tone. The role of the muscle spindle and the stretch reflex. Muscle tone is accomplished by a complex interaction between the nervous system and skeletal muscles that results in the activation of a few motor units at a time, most likely in a cyclical manner. When the physician flexes or extends the joints in a normal, relaxed limb, a certain resistance, known as tone, is detected. This tone is ultimately controlled by impulses from the brain, though special receptors in the muscles themselves are also instrumental in its regulation. The postural tone of the axial and proximal muscles, as well as that of the extraocular and orofacial muscles, reflects the underlying tone of the cns. In this manner, muscles never fatigue completely, as some motor units can recover while others are active.
In physiology, medicine, and anatomy, muscle tone is the continuous and passive part contraction of the muscles, or the muscles resistance to passive stretch during resting state. Even seemingly relaxed muscles possess a small degree of tension called resting muscle tonus or tone. Because skeletal muscle cells are excitable, they can rechapter outline general functions, 312 function of skeletal muscle tissue, 312. Ziser lecture notes, 2006 2 muscle cell contraction. The excitability of the stretch reflex is used as a measure of tone.