HMB200H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Astrocyte, Electric Current, Active Transport
1 May 2014
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Stimulus must be translated into neural signals that travel rapidly up the long sensory nerves of: in the spinal cord, the signals are transferred to interneurons. Even simple reflexes requires the nervous system to collect, distribute and integrate information. The nerve impulse or action potential overcomes the biological constraints: they do not diminish over distance; they are signals of fixed size and duration. Cells capable of generating and conducting action potentials, include both nerve and muscle cells: they are said to have excitable membrane, the action in action potentials occurs at the cell membrane. In the resting neuron, the cytosol along the inside surface of the membrane has a negative electrical charge compared to the outside: this difference in electrical charge across the membrane is called the resting membrane potential. 3 main elements: salty fluids on either side of the membrane, the membrane, the proteins that span the membrane.
