Anode break excitation

Anode break excitation (ABE) is an electrophysiological phenomenon whereby a neuron fires action potentials in response to termination of a hyperpolarizing current.

When a hyperpolarizing current is applied across a membrane, the electrical potential across the membrane falls (becomes negative of the resting potential); this fall is followed by a drop in the threshold required for action potential (since the threshold is directly linked to the potential across the membrane - they rise and fall together).

ABE arises after the hyperpolarizing current is terminated: the potential across the cell rises rapidly with the absence of hyperpolarizing stimulus, but the action potential threshold stays at its lowered value. As a result, the potential is suprathreshold: sufficient to cause an action potential within the cell.

Further reading

  • Hodgkin AL, Huxley AF (August 1952). "A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve". The Journal of Physiology. 117 (4): 500–44. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004764. PMC 1392413. PMID 12991237.
gollark: I used ctypes to avoid the MAX_YEAR thing once.
gollark: I did. Obviously I'm already aware of such technology.
gollark: Before making assertions about group theory, I always make sure to check if I'm dreaming, just in case.
gollark: Or put in the neat thing for positive numbers with a conditional. Although I guess you'd still need both code paths.
gollark: Just use the magic incantation "without loss of generality".

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.