Compare and contrast cardiac, smooth, and skeletal muscle.

While all muscles contract to produce movement or act as a pump, they have several differences in anatomy and physiology. Skeletal muscle, connected to bones, is voluntary muscle and is striated.  The nervous system stimulates skeletal muscles to contract when you choose a movement. Smooth muscle operates from hormonal and nerve stimulation, but is involuntary. It has no striations and is found in the walls of tubes and hollow organs. Cardiac muscle, in the heart, is also involuntary, like smooth muscle but it has striations like skeletal muscle.