Excitable Membranes and Neural Conduction

Neural information processing is based on three cellular mechanisms, i.e., the excitability of neural membranes, the spatiotemporal integration of activities on dendritic trees, and synaptic transmission. The basic element of neural activity is the action potential, which is a binary event, being either present or absent, much like the electrical signals in digital circuit technology. In this chapter, we discuss the formation of the action potential as a result of the dynamics of electrical and chemical processes in the neural membrane. In order to infer the closed-loop dynamics from the individual processes of voltage sensitive ion channels and the resulting resistive and capacitive currents, a mathematical theory is needed, known as the Hodgkin–Huxley theory. The propagation of neural signals along axons and dendrites is based on the cable equation that is also discussed in this chapter. Mathematical background is mostly from the theory of dynamical systems.