title: Conditions under which Na+ channels can boost conduction of small graded potentials.
abstract: It has recently become apparent that in the dendrites or short axons of some neurons, voltage-dependent sodium channels are used not to generate action potentials but to modulate graded potentials; graded potentials carry far more information than do action potentials. A model axon (or dendrite) is described in which sodium channels with kinetics described by equations of the Hodgkin-Huxley type boost conduction of small voltage signals. For a sodium channel density beyond a certain minimum there exists an optimal potential, depolarized with respect to the resting potential, at which there is no steady-state decrement along the axon. For an axon not longer than about 0.7 length constants, small, steady-state deviations from this optimal potential imposed at one end of the axon appear amplified in a graded and stable way at the other end. A small pulse of potential is propagated with amplification and more rapidly than in an axon with a passive membrane. Compared to passive propagation, there will be an improvement in signal-to-noise ratio at the synapse; the axon also acts as a selective frequency filter. The same axon is capable of conducting an action potential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University Riccarton, Edinburgh, U.K.
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Coles
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Eilbeck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D015222:Sodium Channels / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015222:Sodium Channels