Action and Resting Potentials Flashcards
Ionic Composition of Intracellular and Extracellular fluids
Inside is More negatively charged than the outside
NA+
Sodium Ion
Cl-
Chloride Ion
K+
Potassium Ion
Extracellular Fluids
- Large concentration of sodium and chloride ions, and small concentration of potassium ions
- More Positive
Intracellular Fluids
- A lot of potassium ions
- Few sodium and chloride ions
- Contain large negatively charged proteins in ion form
- Therefore, Inside is More negatively charged than the outside
Ions
charger molocules
Ion Channels and Ion Pumps
- Ion Channels – when open, passively allow certain ions like Sodium (Na+) or Chlorine (Cl-) to pass through the membrane.
- Ion Pumps – actively push out sodium ions and draw in potassium (K+) ions, or actively push out calcium (Ca++) ions.
- Requires 20-40% of the energy used by the brain! Because this pump is so important
- The pump has no diffusion at all so
- 3 Na+ in for every two K+ out
Membrane and ATP
- The membrane is a phosphide lipid bilayer
- The protein structure on the inside has two binding sites- one for sodium and one for potassium- it takes sodium from inside puts it outside and potassium from outside and puts it inside RP
- Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) – the cell’s energy source – phosphorylates the protein of the pump, changing its shape
voltage
The energy available as a result of the separated difference in electric charge
Factors That Move Ions/Molocules
- Diffusion
- Electrostatic Pressure
Diffusion
- force that moves molecules from areas of higher concentration to lower concentration (more crowded to less crowded)
Electrostatic pressure
force that moves molecules with like electrical charges apart and molecules with opposite electrical charges together (like magnets)
Driving forces for K+ Cl- and Na+
Chloride
- Diffusion for chloride, which is outside, says in
- EP for chloride and the interior proteins inside, say out!
Potassium
- Diffusion says out
- EP says in
Sodium
- Diffusion says in (huge driving force for sodium)
- If it was wide open, ALL the sodium would RUSH into the cell
Remember new H&M video
Resting Potential
- the measurement of the electrical charge across the neural membrane when the cell is not processing information
- Allows potassium to cross freely
- Sodium and potassium pumps have sodium outside and inside have a lot of potassium
- Na+ and Cl- wherever one goes the other follows. As we see in the extracellular fluid, we have lots of chloride (because it follows sodium) and sodium
- Usually rests at -70 mV
- In this state, Inside is negative and outside is positive
Action Potential- explain the process
- Resting State: Inside more negative than outside. K+ and Negative proteins inside and Na+ and Cl- outside
- neurotransmitters from other cells (post synaptic) were accepted by dendrite receptors
- Neurotransmitters have passive spreads until they reach the axon hillock (AKA positive ions are received and get to AH)
- passive spread of ions you see positive ions traveling and the integration zone is where it reaches the threshold which happens at the axon hillock
- We get to axon hillock which is the point of decision
- Once in a while at membrane of axon hillock there are enough positive ions to push through the threshold (when we reach -65mV) which causes more opening of sodium channels and then boom action potential is shot
- At start of action potential, the channels are alerted
- Takes potassium a whole to wake up
- Sodium opens faster
-
Depolarization: With the rush of sodium inside, it gets up to 40+ mV which means that the neuron is now positively charged relative to the Extracellular fluid- which is the opposite of resting
- This is depolarization- when the sodium channels open
- At this peak, potassium leaves the cell:
- Because now with all the positive sodium inside the driving force tells the potassium to get out
- It jumps from node of Ranvier to the next node of Ranvier until it gets to axon terminal and releases Neurotransmitters
- When we lose the positive potassium charged ions it becomes negative inside again which is called repolarization
- We have the undershoot because of potassium leak channels
- And the potassium pumps are removing sodium from inside the cell as well, which makes the dip
What causes the voltage to go up and down?
- Sodium makes go up
- Potassium makes it go down
4 phases of membrane potential
- Resting
- Depolarizing phase
- Repolarizing phase
- Undershoot
Differences between Sodium and potassium channels
-
Sodium
- Open rapidly
- Remain open briefly and are inactive until the cell reaches resting potential again
-
Potassium
- Open slowly
- Remain open for a longer time
tetrodotoxin
- a toxin by puffer fish that blocks sodium channels and then you die since sodium can’t get into cell