Multiple equilibria and exotic behaviour in excitable membranes

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The excitation equation for an excitable membrane dV/dt=F(V) may have multiple equilibria where F(V)=0, and these may be stable or unstable. We demonstrate multiple equilibria in the Hodgkin-Huxley equations when either gK or [Ca2+]0 is lowered in the presence of a hyperpolarising current density. Under these conditions molluscan somata exhibit exotic behaviours-endogenous paroxysmal depolarising shifts and complex multiple spikes reminiscent of the normal complex activity of some mammalian central neurones. Complex discharge waveforms can be an expression of membrane (differential) properties, rather than electrotonic, geometric (partial differential) behaviour.

This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit: