Action Potential Collision in Nerves

Abstract

It is generally accepted that the collision of two action potentials coming from opposite directions is produced by the mutual annihilation of both signals. The experimental confirmation of this effect was shown by Tasaki in 1949 [1] and their fundings are conforming to the Hodgkin-Huxley model for action potential propagation [2].In the current work we performed an analogous experiments to these made by Tasaki but using Lumbricus terrestris as an animal model. The collision of two simultaneously generated impulses propagating in orthodromic and antidromic directions were investigated. The experiments have been performed in the extracted ventral cord of Lumbricus terrestris by using double external stimulation and single channel recording. Siurprisingly, the collision of two action potential impulses of orthodromic and antidromic propagation within the median giant axon in the ventral cord haven't showed the annihilation of the two signals as is commonly known. The results are in a good agreement with the soliton model for the nerve signal propagation suggested by Heimburg and Jackson [3].