Essay on Physioex 9.0 Exercise 3

b. What phenomena must take place for the small postsynaptic potentials to reach threshold and produce action potentials?

1. Exceeding the threshold depolarization at the trigger zone DECREASES the likelihood of generation of action potential.

A voltage-gated sodium ion channel opens when there is a change in the voltage of the membrane and allows sodium ions to flow across its electrochemical gradient. These voltage-gated channels are made up of amino acids and they aid in generating and moving an action potential down a membrane or axon (Brooker, Robert, 106).

If the nerve impulse is not released than it will not cause an action potential.

Resting potentials require ions as they play a vital role in the process. In the surface membrane of a cell there are protein carriers. These actively pump Na+ ions out of the cytoplasm to the outside of the cell. At the

Once a presynaptic neuron is passive, an electrical current is spread along the length of the axon (Schiff, 2012). This is known as action potential (Pinel, 2011). Action potential happens once an abundant amount of depolarisation reaches the limit through the entry of sodium, by means of voltage gated sodium channels

Increasing the extracellular potassium reduces the concentration gradient, and less potassium diffuses out of the neuron and into the cell.

Both electrical and chemical forces combine to determine the resting membrane potential of the cell. Although the resting membrane potential of most cells is normally negative, the selective permeability of the membrane allows certain ions in and out, causing the neuronal membrane voltage to become depolarized (more positive), or hyperpolarized (more negative). Key ions involved in muscle membrane potential are sodium, potassium, and chloride, which move via passive or active diffusion through ion channels and transporter pumps (Baierlein et al. 2011). The Nernst equation predicts the membrane voltage based on the assumption that the membrane is only permeable to one type of ion. In this investigation, we are seeking to understand the basis for how different ions interact to produce the membrane potential of DEM, DEL1, and DEL2 crayfish muscle

A nerve cell has a negative charge at a resting state due to negatively charged proteins within the cell.[3] Although the inside of the cell contains positively charged potassium ions as well, overall the charge is still negative. Along with potassium on the inside of the cell, positively charged sodium ions are located around the exterior of the cell.[3] When an action potential occurs, the cell becomes even more negatively charged. In turn, this causes sodium transport molecules in the membrane of the cell to open.[3] Sodium will then enter the cell during active transport. The positively charged sodium will cancel out the negatively charged active potential which will depolarize the cell. This allows neurotransmitters to transfer from cell to cell.[3] These neurotransmitters are what allows the body to feel pain. Local anesthetics work by diffusing through nerve fibers. Once they’ve reached the cells, they block the sodium transport molecules in the cell.[2] Therefore neurotransmitters cannot transfer information from cell to cell and the feeling of

a. Yes the amplitude of action potential in the median giant axon vary with the stimulus voltage in an earthworm. From the experiment, we saw that as the amplitude of stimulus voltage increases,

Single action potentials follow the “all or none” rule. The “all or none” rule being that if a stimulus is strong enough to depolarize the membrane of the neuron to threshold, then an action potential will be fired. Each stimulus that reaches threshold will produce an action potential that is equal in magnitude to every other action potential for the neuron. Compound action potentials do not exhibit this property since they are a bundle of neurons and have different magnitudes of action potentials. Compound action potentials are also graded, meaning the greater the stimulus, the greater the action potential.

When a membrane is excited depolarization begins. When the membrane depolarizes the resting membrane potential of -70 mV becomes less negative. When the membrane potential reaches 0 mV, indicating there is no charge difference across the membrane. the sodium ion channels start to close and potassium ion channels open. By the time the sodium ion channels finally close. The membrane potential has reached +35 mV. The opening of the potassium channels allows K+ to flow out of the cell down its electrochemical gradient ( ion of like charge are repelled from each other). The flow of K+ out of the cell causes the membrane potential to move in a negative direction. This is referred to as repolarization. ( Marieb & Mitchell, 2009). As the transmembrane potential comes back down towards its resting potential level and the potassium channels begins to close, the trasmembrane potential level goes just below -90mV, causing a brief period of hyperpolarization (Martini, Nath & Bartholomew, 2012). Finally, as the potassium channels close, the membrane turns back to its resting potential until it is excited or inhibited again.

Hence, this would allow for an influx of sodium into the cell down its electrochemical gradient. It would also allow for the flow of potassium outward, as it has a 140mM concentration inside the cell and wants to shift down its concentration gradient to 5.4mM. Therefore, this great driving force for the influx of sodium and efflux of potassium helps to explain the findings at this point. As Table 1 shows, the findings within this figure are statistically supported. The fact that there is not significant difference between the findings of this experiment and the calculated Nernst at the 10, 20 and 40mM of potassium is an indicator that sodium is the largest determinant of the resting membrane potential. However, some findings defy the expectations, as the last two concentrations elicit a resting membrane potential significantly more negative than expected. This can be explained by the fact that at this point, each muscle at their respective muscle groups has been protruded many

Whenever the balance is altered, the process of transmitting electrical signals, which is called action potential initiates by carrying information across a neuron’s axon; which is called resting membrane potential. This process occurs as uneven ions distribution flow across cell membrane, creating electrical potential. As a result, the duration of active potential can be as fast as 1 ms. Similarly, the average resting membrane is between -40 mV and -80 mV. Since the membrane from inside is more negatively charged than the outside, it reflected on the negative average voltage readings of the resting membrane.

The electrical event that projects the signal along these distances is known as an action potential. The action potential runs from the axon hillock to the end of the axon where more synaptic contacts are made. Target cells of neurons include nerve cells in your brain, spinal cord, cells of your muscles and various glands.