How the Heart Works

How the Heart Works The heart of the electrical system generates its own electrical signals or pulses. Electrical pulses can be recorded by placing the electrodes on the skin of the chest and creating an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). An electrical pulse of the heart appears on top of the right atrium and spreads out. As it spreads, it collapses the myocardium. If the electrical signal is disturbed in some way, the effective pumping action of the heart may deteriorate or it may stop completely.

Modern research greatly improves our understanding of how the heart functions and has brought about new therapies for heart disease. However, little is known about how the heart evolved in the history of animals with skeletons - this group is collectively called a vertebrate. This is because the heart is made of soft muscle tissue not calcified like hard tissue like bone. Soft tissue fossils are rare, but paleontologists have excavated other soft tissue fossils such as the stomach and umbilical cord. These findings suggest hope for fossil's heart, and now Lala Maldanis, Murilo Carvalho and colleagues have certainly found a fossil heart with two extinct teleost fish known as Rhacolepis buccalis . These fish are still living in the Cretaceous age 113 million years ago and are now in modern Brazilian regions.

Organizations gather in the body to form organs. These include brain, heart, lung, kidney, liver. Each body organ has a specific shape and is composed of different kinds of tissues. For example, the heart primarily consists of certain types of muscle tissue that rhythmically contract to provide pumping of the heart. However, it also contains nerve tissue carrying electrical signals causing contraction and aligns with epithelial tissue.