ACTION POTENTIAL

• For a long time, the process of communication between

the nerves and their target tissues was a big unknown for
physiologists. With the development of electrophysiology
and the discovery of electrical activity of neurons, it was
discovered that the transmission of signals from neurons
to their target tissues is mediated by action potentials.
• An action potential is defined as a sudden, fast, transitory,
and propagating change of the
resting membrane potential. Only neurons and
muscle cells are capable of generating an action
potential; that property is called the excitability.
• Action potentials are nerve signals. Neurons
generate and conduct these signals along their
processes in order to transmit them to the
target tissues.
• an action potential is generated when a
stimulus changes the membrane potential to
the values of threshold potential.
• It is important to know that the action
potential behaves upon the all-or-none law.
This means that any subthreshold stimulus will
cause nothing, while threshold and
suprathreshold stimuli produce a full response
of the excitable cell.
 Phases

• From the aspect of ions, an action potential is caused

by temporary changes in membrane permeability for
diffusible ions. These changes cause ion channels to
open and the ions to decrease their concentration
gradients. The value of threshold potential depends on
the membrane permeability, intra- and extracellular
concentration of ions, and the properties of the cell
membrane.
• An action potential has several phases;
hypopolarization, depolarization, overshoot,
repolarization and hyperpolarization.
• Hypopolarization is the initial increase of the membrane
potential to the value of the threshold potential. The
threshold potential opens voltage-gated sodium
channels and causes a large influx of sodium ions.
• This phase is called the depolarization. During
depolarization, the inside of the cell becomes more and
more electropositive, until the potential gets closer the
electrochemical equilibrium for sodium of +61 mV. This
phase of extreme positivity is the overshoot phase.
• After the overshoot, the sodium permeability suddenly
decreases due to the closing of its channels.
• The overshoot value of the cell potential opens voltage-gated
potassium channels, which causes a large potassium efflux,
decreasing the cell’s electropositivity. This phase is
the repolarization phase, whose purpose is to restore the
resting membrane potential.
• Repolarization always leads first to hyperpolarization, a state
in which the membrane potential is more negative than the
default membrane potential. But soon after that, the
membrane establishes again the values of membrane
potential.
 Refractory period

• The refractory period is the time after an action potential is

generated, during which the excitable cell cannot produce another
action potential.
• Absolute refractoriness overlaps the depolarization and around 2/3
of repolarization phase.
• A new action potential cannot be generated during depolarization
because all the voltage-gated sodium channels are already opened
or being opened at their maximum speed.
• During early repolarization, a new action potential is impossible
since the sodium channels are inactive and need the resting
potential to be in a closed state, from which they can be in an open
state once again. Absolute refractoriness ends when enough sodium
channels recover from their inactive state.
 Propagation of action potential

• An action potential is generated in the body of

the neuron and propagated through its axon.
Propagation doesn’t decrease or affect the
quality of the action potential in any way, so
that the target tissue gets the same impulse
no matter how far they are from neuronal
body
• The action potential generates at one spot of
the cell membrane. It propagates along the
membrane with every next part of the
membrane being sequentially depolarized.
This means that the action potential doesn’t
move but rather causes a new action potential
of the adjacent segment of the neuronal
membrane.
• The speed of propagation largely depends on the thickness
of the axon and whether it’s myelinated or not. The larger
the diameter, the higher the speed of propagation. The
propagation is also faster if an axon is myelinated. Myelin
increases the propagation speed because it increases the
thickness of the fiber. In addition, myelin enables saltatory
conduction of the action potential, since only the Ranvier
nodes depolarize, and myelin nodes are jumped over.
In unmyelinated fibers, every part of the axonal membrane
needs to undergo depolarization, making the propagation
significantly slower.
 Synapse

• A synapse is a junction between the nerve cell

and its target tissue. In humans, synapses
are chemical, meaning that the nerve impulse is
transmitted from the axon ending to the target
tissue by the chemical substances called
neurotransmitters (ligands). If a neurotransmitter
stimulates the target cell to an action, then it is an
excitatory neurotransmitter. On the other hand, if
it inhibits the target cell, it is an inhibitory
neurotransmitter.
• Depending on the type of target tissue, there are central
and peripheral synapses. Central synapses are between
two neurons in the central nervous system, while
peripheral synapses occur between a neuron and muscle
fiber, peripheral nerve, or gland.
• Each synapse consists of the:
• Presynaptic membrane – membrane of the terminal
button of the nerve fiber
• Postsynaptic membrane – membrane of the target cell
• Synaptic cleft – a gap between the presynaptic and
postsynaptic membranes
• Inside the terminal button of the nerve fiber are
produced and stored numerous vesicles that
contain neurotransmitters. When the presynaptic
membrane is depolarized by an action potential,
the calcium voltage-gated channels open. This
leads to an influx of calcium, which changes the
state of certain membrane proteins in the
presynaptic membrane, and results with
exocitosis of the neurotransmitter in the synaptic
cleft.
• The postsynaptic membrane contains receptors for
the neurotransmitters. Once the neurotransmitter
binds to the receptor, the ligand-gated channels of
the postsynaptic membrane either open or close.
These ligand-gated channels are the ion channels,
and their opening or closing will cause a
redistribution of ions in the postsynaptic cell.
Depending on whether the neurotransmitter is
excitatory or inhibitory, this will result with
different responses.