NEUR30002 Lecture 5: LECTURE 5 - ACTION POTENTIAL

• School: University of Melbourne
• Department: Neuroscience
• Course: NEUR30002
• Professor: Angelina Fong

Document Summary

* graded/passive potentials can lead to the membrane potential reaching threshold and once it reaches threshold an action potential occurs and it occurs via the action of special ion channels that are voltage sensitive. * action potentials are the language of the nervous system all that a neuron and its connection to the next neuron is interested in is the action potential. * there is no information coded in the size of an action potential it eithe(cid:396) fi(cid:396)es o(cid:396) it does(cid:374)"t. * once you get the high frequencies of action potentials you start to change the mix of the transmitters that are released from the terminal. So, the cocktail of information that comes out of the axon and out into the synapse changes according to the frequency of the firing of the action potential. * so, the action potential is the language and the frequency is what gives the language some nuance (subtle difference in meaning/expression).