AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -What is the diaphragm? The diaphragm is a muscle that helps you inhale and exhale (breathe in and out). This thin, dome-shaped muscle sits below your lungs and heart. It’s attached to your sternum (a bone in the middle of your chest), the bottom of your rib cage and your spine.

Detailed explanation-2: -Overview. The diaphragm, located below the lungs, is the major muscle of respiration. It is a large, dome-shaped muscle that contracts rhythmically and continually, and most of the time, involuntarily. Upon inhalation, the diaphragm contracts and flattens and the chest cavity enlarges.

Detailed explanation-3: -The diaphragm (DYE-uh-fram) is a muscle between the chest and the abdomen that allows the body to move air in and out of the respiratory system. When you breathe in (inhalation), the diaphragm moves down toward the abdomen, and the rib muscles pull the ribs upward and outward.

Detailed explanation-4: -The diaphragm muscle is of the skeletal or striated type and is the major muscle of ventilation. Accessory muscles of ventilation include the scalene, the sternocleidomastoid, the pectoralis major, the trapezius, and the external intercostals.

Detailed explanation-5: -Contraction of the diaphragm increases the internal height of the thoracic cavity, thus lowering its internal pressure and causing inspiration of air. Relaxation of the diaphragm and the natural elasticity of lung tissue and the thoracic cage produce expiration.