PSL300H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Saltatory Conduction, Schwann Cell, Neuroglia
Document Summary
Lecture three: when a patch of excitable membrane generates an action potential, this causes an influx of. Initially have ap that"s generated then this first ap will create depolarizing current that spreads passively and ap occurs in adjacent part of membrane. Action potential will travel along the axon and towards axon terminal. Action potential generated at the beginning will propagate towards axon terminal. In biological tissue, if we put a voltage across membrane on one location (i. e. step charge in voltage) and measure the voltage across the membrane some distance away, it doesn"t look anything like what we started with. Lose lots of magnitude and end up with different shape therefore its not a good conductor of electricity. Ideally, you want to increase as much as possible so that the depolarizing current will spread a great distance. Didn"t get very far so it has a lower resistance. This has a better so it went further before it lost.
