Ion plasmon collective oscillations underlying saltatory conduction in myelinated axons and topological-homotopy concept of memory

Abstract

Abstract We demonstrate a new wave-type model of saltatory conduction in myelinated axons. A poor conductivity of the neuron cytosol limits electrical current signal velocity upon the cable theory, to 1–3 m/s, whereas the saltatory conduction undergoes with the velocity of signal transduction 100–300 m/s. We propose the wave-type mechanism of the saltatory conduction in the form of kinetics of ion plasmon-polariton being the hybrid of the electromagnetic wave and of the ion plasma oscillations, which meets the observations. Plasmons oscillations have a quantum character to some extent as the coherent oscillations of all ions are possible due to their repulsion which can be understood upon the quantum approach like random phase approximation by Pines and Bohm. Basing on the difference of electricity of myelinated white matter and nonmyelinated gray matter in cortex we outline the topological concept of the memory functioning.