Abstract
The collisions of two simultaneously generated impulses in the giant axons of both earthworms and lobster propagating in orthodromic and antidromic direction were investigated. The experiments have been performed on the extracted ventral cords of Lumbricus terrestris and the abdominal ventral cord of lobster, Homarus americanus, by using external stimulation and recording. The collision of two nerve impulses of orthodromic and antidromic propagation didn't result in the annihilation of the two signals contrary to the common notion that is based on the existence of a refractory period in the well-known Hodgkin-Huxley theory. However, the results are in agreement with the electromechanical soliton theory for nerve pulse propagation as suggested by Heimburg and Jackson (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 9790 (2005)).
Highlights
The action potential in nerves consists of a transmembrane voltage pulse of approximately 100 mV that propagates along the neuronal axon
We report on collision experiments using the ventral cords of earthworm Lumbricus terrestris and the abdominal ventral cord of a lobster Homarus americanus and show that the collision of two impulses generated simultaneously in orthodromic and antidromic directions does not result in their mutual annihilation
We investigated the collision of action potentials in giant axons of the earthworm both experimentally and theoretically
Summary
The action potential in nerves consists of a transmembrane voltage pulse of approximately 100 mV that propagates along the neuronal axon. In 1952, Hodgkin and Huxley (HH) proposed that this pulse results from a selective voltage-dependent breakdown in membrane resistance for potassium and sodium [1]. Hodgkin compared the action potential to “a burning fuse of gunpowder” [2]. Time scales in the model, intended to describe relaxation processes in the proteins, are contained in the parametrization of the protein conductances. They lead to a refractory period following a pulse during which the nerve is not excitable. It is expected that nerve pulses traveling from opposite ends of a neuron will annihilate upon collision [3]
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