<P> Invertebrates such as annelids, mollusks, and nematodes, possess obliquely striated muscles, which contain bands of thick and thin filaments that are arranged helically rather than transversely, like in vertebrate skeletal or cardiac muscles . In bivalves, the obliquely striated muscles can maintain tension over long periods without using too much energy . Bivalves use these muscles to keep their shells closed . </P> <P> Advanced insects such as wasps, flies, bees, and beetles possess asynchronous muscles that constitute the flight muscles in these animals . These flight muscles are often called fibrillar muscles because they contain myofibrils that are thick and conspicuous . A remarkable feature of these muscles is that they do not require stimulation for each muscle contraction . Hence, they are called asynchronous muscles because the number of contractions in these muscles do not correspond (or synchronize) with the number of action potentials . For example, a wing muscle of a tethered fly may receive action potentials at a frequency of 3 Hz but it is able to beat at a frequency of 120 Hz . The high frequency beating is made possible because the muscles are connected to a resonant system, which is driven to a natural frequency of vibration . </P> <P> In 1780, Luigi Galvani discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs twitched when struck by an electrical spark . This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still studies the electrical patterns and signals in tissues such as nerves and muscles . </P> <P> In 1952, the term excitation--contraction coupling was coined to describe the physiological process of converting an electrical stimulus to a mechanical response . This process is fundamental to muscle physiology, whereby the electrical stimulus is usually an action potential and the mechanical response is contraction . Excitation--contraction coupling can be dysregulated in many diseases. Though excitation--contraction coupling has been known for over half a century, it is still an active area of biomedical research . The general scheme is that an action potential arrives to depolarize the cell membrane . By mechanisms specific to the muscle type, this depolarization results in an increase in cytosolic calcium that is called a calcium transient . This increase in calcium activates calcium - sensitive contractile proteins that then use ATP to cause cell shortening . </P>

When was the link between muscular contraction and electricity discovered