ANAT 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Resting Potential, Membrane Potential
3 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Cells communicate through action potentials and graded potentials. Action potentials-allow communication over short or long distances. Graded potentials-allow communication over short distances only. Production of ap or gp depends on the resting membrane potential and the existence of certain ion channels. No communication can occur unless plasma membrane goes under any electrical change. Plasma membrane basically has voltage that we can measure. All stimuli are creating gp but if we want to act on it will be ap. (ap can"t occur without gp but gp can happen without ap) Graded is like hearing stuf but actually doing something about it, we need ap. Leakage channel-open and close randomly to diferent ions. Potassium channels are more numerous than sodium channels. Keep more potassium inside than outside (always pulling k back in therefore k always wants to move out), so higher concentration inside than outside. As they kick sodium out, na wants to get back in vice versa.
