Resting Membrane Potential

• Found in almost all cells.

• In neurons, it is usually –70 mV.
 Genesis of Membrane Potential
• The distribution of ions across cell membrane.
• K+ move out from cell by it’s concentration
gradient via K+ channels.
• Na+-K+ATPases pumps 2 K+ back into the cell for
every 3 Na+ out of the cell.
• K+ channels make the membrane more permeable
to K+  Na+ influx does not compensate K+ efflux
 intracellular relatively Θ charged.
 Ionic Basis of
Resting Membrane Potential

• Actively, Na+ is transported out & K+ into

cells.
• K+ moves out & Na+ moves in, but because
of K+ channels, K+ permeability at rest is >
Na+ permeability,  K+ channels maintain
the RMP.
 Ionic Basis of
Resting Membrane Potential

• Catelectronic currents  voltage-activated

Na+ channels become active.
• When firing level reached  voltage-
activated Na+ channels overwhelm the K+ &
other channels  spike potentials results.
 Potential of Membrane
• Action potential; a characteristic series of potential
changes if axon is stimulated and a conducted impulse
occurs.
• Stimulus artifact; a brief irregular deflection of the
baseline due to current leakage from the stimulating
electrodes to the recording electrodes.

• Latent period; isopotential

interval from stimulus artifact
until the starts of the action
potential  impulse takes time
to travel along the axon from
the site of stimulation to the
recording electrodes.
 Potential of Membrane
• If the stimulus is at or above threshold intensity,
the action potential is therefore “all or none” in
character.
• Strength duration curve; the relation between
the strength & the duration of a threshold
stimulus.
• Accommodation; a process that slowly raising
currents fail to fire the nerve because the nerve
adapts to the applied stimulus.
 Potential of Membrane
• Electrotonic potentials;
Application of such currents with a cathode leads to a
localized depolarizing potential change that rises sharply
& decays exponentially with time.
The magnitude of this response drops off rapidly as the
distance between the stimulating and recording electrodes
is increased.
Conversely, an anodal current produces a hyperpolarizing
potential change of similar duration. These potential
changes are called electrotonic potentials.
 Potential of Membrane
• Local responses;
Effect on membrane potential due to an
application of subthreshold stimuli but do
not produce an action potential.
• Firing level;
A threshold level that makes excitable
membrane is triggered to undergo an action
potential.
 Changes in Excitability During
Electronic Potentials
& the Action Potential
• Refractory Period;
– During the local response, the threshold is lowered, but
during the rising & much of the falling phases of the spike
potential, the neuron is refractory to the stimulation.
– Absolute refractory period; the period from the time the
firing level is reached until repolarization is about ⅓
complete.  not excitable.
– Relative refractory period; lasting from the repolarization is
about ⅓ complete to the start of after hyper-depolarization.
 excitable by stronger than normal stimulus.
 Changes in Excitability During
Electronic Potentials
& the Action Potential

• During after-depolarization, the threshold

again decreased.
• During after-hyperpolarization, the
threshold is increased.
 Electrogenesis
of the Action Potential
• Nerve cell membrane is polarized at rest,
♁charges along the outside of the
membrane and Θ charges along the inside.
• During the action potential, this polarity is
abolished & for a brief period is actually
reversed.
 Graded Potential
• Local changes in membrane potential.
• Occur in varying grades or degrees of
magnitude or strength.
• The stronger s trigger event, the larger the
redultant graded potential.
• Graded potential spread by passive current
flow.
Graded potential die out over short distances

Current loss across the plasma membrane

Decremental spread
of graded potential
 Excitable Tissue
• Nerve and muscle cells can be stimulated
electrically, chemically, mechanically
 action potential.
 Neurophysiology

• Neurons are highly irritable

• Action potentials, or nerve impulses, are:
– Electrical impulses carried along the length of
axons
– Always the same regardless of stimulus
– The underlying functional feature of the
nervous system
 Nerve Cells
• Have a low threshold for excitation.
• 2 types of psychochemical disturbances:
1. Local non propagated potentials:
 Synaptic.
 Generator.
 Electrotonic.
2. Propagated disturbances  action potential
(nerve impulses)
Anatomy of a
neuron
Contiguous
conduction
Value of the refractory priode
 Saltatory Conduction
• The propagation of action potentials along
myelinated axons from one node of Ranvier
to the next node.
• Increasing the conduction velocity of action
potentials without needing to increase the
diameter of an axon.
Myelinated fibers
 Saltatory
Conduction
Nerve fiber type & Functions

Somatic motor fiber type

Autonomic motor fiber type

Nerve fiber type & Functions
Nerve fiber type & Functions
Numerical classification for sensory neurons
Relative susceptibility
Comparison of Structural Classes of Neurons

Table 11.1.1
Comparison of Structural Classes of Neurons

Table 11.1.2
Comparison of Structural Classes of Neurons

Table 11.1.3
Functional Classes
Characteristic of
Three Classes of
Neurons