ON THE THEORY OF NERVOUS CONDUCTION
Open Access
- 20 March 1931
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Rockefeller University Press in The Journal of general physiology
- Vol. 14 (4) , 517-528
- https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.14.4.517
Abstract
Assuming that the propagation of the nervous impulse consists in the excitation of adjacent regions of the nerve by the action current of the already excited region, exact equations for the velocity of such a propagation are established and integrated. The result depends on the assumptions which we make about the laws of excitation. If Hoorweg's law is accepted, it is found that the velocity of propagation decreases exponentially with time, and that there is a limiting distance which the impulse will travel and which cannot be exceeded. If however a set of equations proposed by L. Lapique is assumed to govern the process of excitation, we find that the velocity of propagation asymptotically reaches a constant value.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: