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1 Review:
1. It was emphasized that all signals in the brain must be converted into electrical signals to produce
overt behavior.
2. The basic electrical model of how electrical signals in the nervous system are generated is very, very
general:
(a) it applies to all the types of potentials produced by neurons,
(b) it applies to cells in many other organs of the body like the heart and skeletal muscles and glands.
3. Sequence of topics we will use to describe neural function will be the following:
molecules and ions → cells → small systems of cells
4. We shall describe the functioning of neurons using two analogies:
(a) a hydraulic model to clarify important features of electrical models, and
(b) an electrical model to describe the electrical behavior of neurons.
2 In accord with our outline above well start with molecules and
ions
1. We need only consider proteins, lipids and ions.
2. Of these we will concentrate today on lipids because we accept the Neuron Doctrine of Ramon y
Cajal which asserts that every neuron (and all other cells) is entirely bounded and hence a somewhat
separate structure from every other neuron. Electron micrographs can magnify cells sufficiently to
allow investigators to see that the outside of neurons is completely bounded by a thin membrane.
3. As initially seen by chemical analysis of myelin, the multiple layers of membrane that are wrapped
around some axons, the principle constituent of membranes is phospholipids.
4. The central component of phospholipids is a 3 carbon glycerol molecule. Two of the 3 carbon atoms
in this glycerol are binding sites for one fatty acid each. These fatty acids have long hydrocarbon tails
containing 16, 17 or 18 -CH2 groups strung together linearly.
5. The hydrocarbon tails contain no partially polarized groups which could form partial bonds with H2 O.
With no available binding sites within the hydrocarbon tails H2 O molecules preferentially associate with
other water molecules which are partially polarized and so contain weak binding sites for other H2 O
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molecules. Calculations show that only 1 in 1072 H2 O molecules would be present in the hydrocarbon
layer if it were adjacent to an H2 O layer.
6. The hydrocarbon tails of the phospholipids will align themselves in parallel one to another which
minimizes their exposure to H2 O. Additionally, one layer of phospholipid tails placed on top of another
layer of these tails will exclude H2 O from ends of the tails and hence maximally reduce the exposure
of the hydrocarbon to H2 O. This is why membranes are formed of “lipid bilayers”.
7. The amazing thing is that these bilayers are only 2 molecules thick and yet are physically stable.
Membranes average a thickness of about 5 nm = 5 · 10−9 m.
8. As shown in class a neuron injected with a fluorescent dye retains that dye in all its branches and in its
cell body; the dye does not diffuse away. This demonstrates that membranes are rather impermeable
to the dye. This property is important because cells need to retain relatively high concentrations of
substances within them in order to function properly.
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joule
point B. Since the unit of charge is the “coulomb”, 1 volt = 1 coulomb . There is no absolute voltage
only voltage differences between one place and another.
7. As with the hydraulic model the larger the voltage difference between 2 points the more current can
be moved from one point to the other.
8. The principles involved in these 2 models are similar - so the models are analogous: