The nature of saltatory conduction in myelinated axon described by equivalent circuit and circuit theory is still contentious. Recent experimental observations of action potentials transmitting through disjointed nerv...The nature of saltatory conduction in myelinated axon described by equivalent circuit and circuit theory is still contentious. Recent experimental observations of action potentials transmitting through disjointed nerve fibers strongly suggest an electromagnetic wave propagation mechanism of the nerve signals. In this paper, we employ the electromagnetic wave model of the myelinated axon to describe action potential signal propagation. We use the experimental frequency-dependent conductivity and permittivity values of the nerve tissues in order to reliably calculate the electromagnetic modes by using electromagnetic mode solvers. We find that the electromagnetic waves above 10 kHz can be well confined in extracellular fluid–myelin sheath–intracellular fluid waveguide and propagate a distance of 7 mm without much attenuation. Our study may serve as one of the fundamental researches for the better understanding of the nervous system.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0701302)the Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund, Malaysia (Grant No. XMUMRF/2020-C5/IMAT/0012)。
文摘The nature of saltatory conduction in myelinated axon described by equivalent circuit and circuit theory is still contentious. Recent experimental observations of action potentials transmitting through disjointed nerve fibers strongly suggest an electromagnetic wave propagation mechanism of the nerve signals. In this paper, we employ the electromagnetic wave model of the myelinated axon to describe action potential signal propagation. We use the experimental frequency-dependent conductivity and permittivity values of the nerve tissues in order to reliably calculate the electromagnetic modes by using electromagnetic mode solvers. We find that the electromagnetic waves above 10 kHz can be well confined in extracellular fluid–myelin sheath–intracellular fluid waveguide and propagate a distance of 7 mm without much attenuation. Our study may serve as one of the fundamental researches for the better understanding of the nervous system.
