1. Week 5: The Action Potential – Part 1
BIOL3833
Week 5: The Action Potential – Part 1

2. Agenda Today: Thursday: Brief lecture then complete Simulations/HW
1) Quick introduction to this week’s topic: The action potential
2) Finish simulations for HW2, Begin simulations for HW3
Thursday: Brief lecture then complete Simulations/HW

3. Bean, 2007, Nature Reviews Neuroscience

6. Action potentials carry information in the nervous system:
Rate
Pattern
Waveform

7. Rate Coding in neural systems
Encoding visual information in the brain:

8. Action potentials carry information in the nervous system:

9. Action potentials carry information in the nervous system:
You will build cells that do this

10. Bean, 2007, Nature Reviews Neuroscience

11. Today we are interested in:
What is threshold? (What determines when the cell fires)
Understanding the dynamics of I V and G during the action potential
What causes AHP? (how might this affect firing rate?)
How is action potential width controlled?
How do Na+ and K+ conductances shape firing patterns

12. Bean, 2007, Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Different action potentials at different areas of the cell. Soma vs. Presynaptic terminal – right before the cell sends its signal to the next cell in line!!!
Bean, 2007, Nature Reviews Neuroscience

13. gK=2
gK=1

14. INa = (Vm – ENa) x GNa

15. Right now: All we have is a cell that doesn’t encode much of anything