Action Potential: A Vortex Phenomena; Driving Membrane Oscillations

• Main Author: Raghottam M. Sattigeri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-03-01
• Series: Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience
• Subjects: action potential; nerve membrane; neurophysics; vortex theory; membrane oscillator theory; biophysical model
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncom.2020.00021/full

Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model has been one of the most successful electrical interpretation of nerve membrane which led to revolutions in the field of computational neuroscience. On the contrary, experimental observations indicate that, an Action Potential (AP) is accompanied with certain physiological changes in the nerve membrane such as, production and absorption of heat; variation of axon diameter, pressure and length. Although, in the early 1900's a Pressure Wave Theory was proposed by E. Wilke, but, due to lack of sophisticated experimental techniques it was left uncharted. Until recently, when Heimburg-Jackson, Hady-Machta and Rvachev, independently proposed Soliton Theory (thermodynamic interpretation of nerve membrane), Mechanical Surface Waves theory (electro-mechanical interpretation) and Rvachev Model (mechano-electrical activation of voltage gated sodium ion channels) respectively; encouraging a deviation from the traditional HH interpretation with justification for the physical changes in the nerve membrane observed experimentally. But, these theories lead to a “hit and miss” scenario because, they do explain certain features (increase/decrease in axon diameter) but miss to explain, correlation between the strength of stimuli and spike rate of AP. Bio-physical models of nerve membrane are thus important for enhancing our understanding regarding the governing dynamics of neural activities encompassing the experimental observations. A novel theory is proposed here which, unravels vortex ring formation due to ion currents in the intracellular and extracellular region leading to variation of pressure causing the increment/decrement in axon diameter. These formations manifest as membrane oscillations which are used to establish a correlation between the strength of stimuli and spike rate of AP. The theory proposed in this paper, brings a paradigm shift in our understanding of neural dynamics from a thorough bio-physical and physiological perspective with promising applications.