BIOLOGICAL

PSYCHOLOGY
 The Nerve Impulse

PSYBIO
 Resting Potential and
Action Potential

PSYBIO
 The Resting Potential

• The resting membrane potential is the

potential of a cell while at rest.
• The resting membrane potential is a
result of different concentrations inside
and outside the cell.
• A typical level is –70 millivolts (mV), but
it varies from one neuron to another (-
60 mV to -90 mV)

PSYBIO
 The Resting Potential

• The membrane maintains an electrical gradient - a difference

in electrical charge between the inside and outside of the
cell.
• The active transport of ions across the cell membrane causes
an electrical gradient to build up across this membrane. The
number of positively charged ions outside the cell is usually
greater than the number of positively charged ions in the
cytosol.

PSYBIO
 The Resting Potential
• In the absence of any outside disturbance, the
membrane maintains an electrical polarization,
meaning a difference in electrical charge between
two locations.
• The neuron inside the membrane has a slightly
negative electrical potential with respect to the
outside, primarily because of negatively charged
proteins inside the cell.

PSYBIO
 Forces acting on Sodium and
Potassium Ions

• The membrane is selectively permeable ( some

chemicals can pass through it more freely than
others can)

PSYBIO
 Forces acting on Sodium and
Potassium Ions
• Most large or electrically charged ions and molecules cannot
cross the membrane at all. Oxygen, carbon dioxide, urea, and
water cross freely through channels that are always open.
• A few biologically important ions, such as sodium, potassium,
calcium, and chloride, cross through membrane channels (or
gates) that are sometimes open and sometimes closed

PSYBIO
 Forces acting on Sodium and
Potassium Ions
• When the membrane is at rest, the sodium channels are
closed, preventing almost all sodium flow.

PSYBIO
 Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) Pump

PSYBIO
 Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) Pump
• A protein complex, repeatedly transports three sodium
ions out of the cell while drawing two potassium ions
into it.
• The sodium-potassium pump is an active transport
requiring energy. Various poisons stop it, as does an
interruption of blood fl ow. As a result of the sodium-
potassium pump, sodium ions are more than 10 times
more concentrated outside the membrane than inside,
and potassium ions are similarly more concentrated
inside than outside.
PSYBIO
 Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) Pump
• The sodium-potassium pump is effective only because of
the selective permeability of the membrane, which
prevents the sodium ions that were pumped out of the
neuron from leaking right back in again.
• As it is, the sodium ions that are pumped out stay out.
• However, some of the potassium ions pumped into the
neuron do leak out, carrying a positive charge with
them. That leakage increases the electrical gradient
across the membrane

PSYBIO
 When the neuron is at rest.....
Electrical Gradient Concentration Gradient
• Sodium is positively • the difference in distribution of
charged and the inside of ions across the membrane.
the cell is negatively Sodium is more concentrated
charged. Opposite outside than inside, so just by
electrical charges attract, the laws of prprobability,
so the electrical gradient sodium is more likely to enter
tends to pull sodium into the cell than to leave it.
the cell.

PSYBIO
 Given that both the electrical gradient and the
concentration gradient tend to move sodium ions into the cell,
sodium would move rapidly if it could. However, the sodium
channels are closed when the membrane is at rest, and almost
no sodium flows except for the sodium pushed out of the cell
by the sodium-potassium pump

PSYBIO
 • Potassium is subject to competing forces. Potassium is
positively charged and the inside of the cell is negatively
charged, so the electrical gradient tends to pull potassium in.
• However, potassium is more concentrated inside the cell than
outside, so the concentration gradient tends to drive it out.
• If the potassium channels were wide open, potassium would
have a moderate net flow out of the cell. That is, the electrical
gradient and concentration gradient for potassium are almost
in balance, but not quite.
• The sodium-potassium pump keeps pulling potassium in, so
the two gradients cannot get completely in balance

PSYBIO
 • Negatively charged proteins inside the cell are responsible for
the membrane’s poization. Chloride ions, being negatively
charged, are mainly outside the cell. In most neurons, the
concentration gradient and electrical gradient balance, so
opening chloride channels produces little eff ect when the
membrane is at rest. However, chloride fl ow is important
when the membrane’s polarization changes

PSYBIO
 Why the resting potential?

The resting potential prepares the neuron to

respond rapidly.

PSYBIO
 The Action Potential

• When an axon’s membrane is at rest, the

recordings show a negative potential inside the
axon.

PSYBIO
 The Action Potential
• Using an artificial electrode to apply a negative charge, we can
further increase the negative charge inside the neuron. The
change is called hyperpolarization, which means increased
polarization.

PSYBIO
 The Action Potential
• Applying a current to
depolarize the neuron—
that is, reduce its
polarization toward
zero.
• With a slightly stronger
depolarizing current, the
potential rises slightly higher but
again returns to the resting level
as soon as the stimulation ceases
PSYBIO
 The Action Potential
• Stimulation beyond a certain level
called the threshold of excitation
produces a massive depolarization of
the membrane. When the potential
reaches the threshold, the membrane
suddenly opens its sodium channels
and permits a rapid flow of ions across
the membrane. The potential shoots
up far beyond the strength of the
stimulus

PSYBIO
 The Action Potential
• Any subthreshold stimulation produces a small response
proportional to the amount of current. Any stimulation
beyond the threshold, regardless of how far beyond,
produces the same response, like the one just shown. Th
at response, a rapid depolarization and slight reversal of
the usual polarization, is referred to as an action
potential. The peak of the action potential, shown as 30
mV in this illustration, varies from one axon to another,
but it is consistent for a given axon.

PSYBIO
 Molecular Basis of the Action Potential

Voltage-gated channels
• The membrane proteins that control sodium entry
• its permeability depends on the voltage difference
across the membrane
• At the resting potential, gated channels are close

PSYBIO
 Molecular Basis of the Action Potential

• As the membrane becomes depolarized, the sodium

channels begin to open and sodium flows more freely. If
the depolarization is less than the threshold, sodium
crosses the membrane only slightly more than usual.
When the potential across the membrane reaches
threshold, the sodium channels open wide.

PSYBIO