BIOL 306 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Squid Giant Axon, Action Potential, Resting Potential

• School: McGill University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 306
• Professor: Alanna Watt Joseph Alan Dent

Document Summary

This exercise will allow you to explore the properties of an axon in a simulation and thereby enhance your understanding of how the action potential works. Click on nerve new version that runs without java (3/2014) . This is a simulation that models the properties of the squid giant axon of hodgkin and huxley fame. First we will look at the properties of passive axons, that is, axons whose ion permeability does not change with time or membrane potential. In the panel that appears, set gna and gk to zero. Leave gl at its default value gl represents a collection of non-voltage sensitive leak currents that set the resting membrane potential. The window that comes up shows the membrane potential vm as a function of time in response to a square wave voltage stimulus. The stimulus is administered by the ist electrode at distance = 0 cm as illustrated at the top of the window.