Topic 02B - How Neurons Fire

BioPsychology 1
How Neurons Fire
Key Points:
✔ Action potentials are formed when a stimulus causes the cell membrane to depolarize past the threshold of excitation, causing all sodium ion channels
to open.
✔ When the potassium ion channels are opened and sodium ion channels are closed, the cell membrane becomes hyperpolarized as potassium ions
leave the cell; the cell cannot fire during this refractory period.
✔ The action potential travels down the axon as the membrane of the axon depolarizes and repolarizes.
✔ Myelin insulates the axon to prevent leakage of the current as it travels down the axon.
✔ Nodes of Ranvier are gaps in the myelin along the axons; they contain sodium and potassium ion channels, allowing the action potential to travel
quickly down the axon by jumping from one node to the next.
Terms:
✔ Action Potential: An electric nerve impulse that travels through a neuron when it is set off by a “trigger”, changing the neuron’s charge from negative
to positive.
✔ Resting State/Resting Potential: It refers to the difference between the voltage inside and outside the neuron. The state in which there is a negative
electrical charge of about -70 millivolts within a neuron.
✔ All-or-none law: The rule that neurons are either on or off.
✔ Depolarization: A decrease in the difference in voltage between the inside and outside of the neuron.
✔ Hyperpolarize: To increase the polarity of something, especially the polarity across a biological membrane.
✔ Saltatory Conduction: The process of regenerating the action potential at each node of Ranvier.
✔ Nodes of Ranvier: A small constriction in the myelin sheath of axons.

BioPsychology 2
How Neurons Fire
Action Potential
A neuron can receive input from other neurons via a chemical called a neurotransmitter. If this input is strong enough, the neuron will pass the
signal to downstream neurons. Transmission of a signal within a neuron (in one direction only, from dendrite to axon terminal) is carried out by the opening
and closing of voltage-gated ion channels, which cause a brief reversal of the resting membrane potential to create an action potential . As an action
potential travels down the axon, the polarity changes across the membrane. Once the signal reaches the axon terminal, it stimulates other neurons.
BioPsychology 3
How Neurons Fire
Figure 1: Formation of an action potential

The formation of an action potential can be divided into five steps. (1) A stimulus from a sensory cell or another neuron causes the target cell to depolarize
toward the threshold potential. (2) If the threshold of excitation is reached, all Na+ channels open and the membrane depolarize. (3) At the peak action
potential, K+ channels open and K+ begins to leave the cell. At the same time, Na+ channels close. (4) The membrane becomes hyperpolarized as K+ ions
continue to leave the cell. The hyperpolarized membrane is in a refractory period and cannot fire. (5) The K+ channels close and the Na+/K+ transporter
restores the resting potential.
Depolarization and the Action Potential
When neurotransmitter molecules bind to receptors located on a neuron's dendrites, voltage-gated ion channels open. At excitatory synapses,
positive ions flood the interior of the neuron and depolarize the membrane, decreasing the difference in voltage between the inside and outside of the
neuron. A stimulus from a sensory cell or another neuron depolarizes the target neuron to its threshold potential (-55 mV), and Na+ channels in the axon
hillock open, starting an action potential. Once the sodium channels open, the neuron completely depolarizes to a membrane potential of about +40 mV.
The action potential travels down the neuron as Na+ channels open.
Hyperpolarization and Return to Resting Potential
Action potentials are considered an "all-or nothing" event. Once the threshold potential is reached, the neuron completely depolarizes. As soon as
depolarization is complete, the cell "resets" its membrane voltage back to the resting potential. The Na+ channels close, beginning the neuron's refractory
period. At the same time, voltage-gated K+ channels open, allowing K+ to leave the cell. As K+ ions leave the cell, the membrane potential once again
becomes negative. The diffusion of K+ out of the cell hyperpolarizes the cell, making the membrane potential more negative than the cell's normal resting
potential. At this point, the sodium channels return to their resting state, ready to open again if the membrane potential again exceeds the threshold
potential. Eventually, the extra K+ ions diffuse out of the cell through the potassium leakage channels, bringing the cell from its hyperpolarized state back
to its resting membrane potential.
BioPsychology 4
How Neurons Fire
Myelin and Propagation of the Action Potential
For an action potential to communicate information to another neuron, it must travel along the axon and reach the axon terminals where it can
initiate neurotransmitter release. The speed of conduction of an action potential along an axon is influenced by both the diameter of the axon and the
axon's resistance to current leak. Myelin acts as an insulator that prevents current from leaving the axon, increasing the speed of action potential
conduction. Diseases like multiple sclerosis cause degeneration of the myelin, which slows action potential conduction because axon areas are no longer
insulated so the current leaks.
BioPsychology 5
How Neurons Fire
Figure 2: Action potential travel along a neuronal axon

The action potential is conducted down the axon as the axon membrane depolarizes, then repolarizes.
A node of Ranvier is a natural gap in the myelin sheath along the axon. These unmyelinated spaces are about one micrometer long and contain
voltage gated Na+ and K+ channels. The flow of ions through these channels, particularly the Na+ channels, regenerates the action potential over and over
again along the axon. Action potential "jumps" from one node to the next in saltatory conduction. If nodes of Ranvier were not present along an axon, the
action potential would propagate very slowly; Na+ and K+ channels would have to continuously regenerate action potentials at every point along the axon.
Nodes of Ranvier also save energy for the neuron since the channels only need to be present at the nodes and not along the entire axon.
BioPsychology 6
How Neurons Fire
Figure 3: Nodes of Ranvier

Nodes of Ranvier are gaps in myelin coverage along axons. Nodes contain voltage-gated K+ and Na+ channels. Action potentials travel down the axon by jumping from
one node to the next.
Source: Boundless. “Nerve Impulse Transmission within a Neuron: Action Potential.” Boundless Biology. Boundless, 08 Aug. 2016. Retrieved 02 Oct. 2016 from
https://www.boundless.com/biology/textbooks/boundless-biology-textbook/the-nervous-system-35/how-neurons-communicate-200/nerve-impulse-transmission-within-a-neur
on-action-potential-762-11995/

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BioPsychology 1

How Neurons Fire

✔ Nodes of Ranvier: A small constriction in the myelin sheath of axons.

Figure 1: Formation of an action potential

Depolarization and the Action Potential

Hyperpolarization and Return to Resting Potential

Myelin and Propagation of the Action Potential

Figure 2: Action potential travel along a neuronal axon

Figure 3: Nodes of Ranvier

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