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Why are action potentials usually conducted in only one direction?
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
By only being conducted in one direction, action potentials allow for fast, direct communication between brain and the peripheral tissues. A good analogy for the one-way function of action potentials is the idea of a one way street. When a car drives the wrong way on a one-way street, the normal drivers are confused, and things can go wrong very easily. For a physiological answer to your question, the ion channels in the axon behind an action potential that just passed have become hyperpolarized compared to their resting state. This means they are not as sensitive as normal to any given electrical impulse (ie. action potential). Because of this, the action potential won't go back towards the direction it came from, because the channels that would have to be opened to allow this are very hard (temporarily) to re-open. The electrical energy of the impulse will favor going in the forward direction instead of going back, because going forward it does not have to overcome such hyperpolarized ion channels, and instead can move forward with relatively little resistance.
Mylene Gleichner
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What are the most rapid action potentials conducted on?
thick myelinated axons
The most rapid action potentials are conducted on?
thick, myelinated axons.
Action potentials are conducted into a skeletal muscle fiber by?
C. neuromuscular junctions
Action potentials are conducted more rapidly when transmission is?
On a small diameter axon
Nerve impulses are conducted along an axon without decrement This means the action potentials are conducted without?
decreasing amplitude
What are the electrical events conducted along the cell plasma membrane that stimulate contraction?
Action potentials
The action potential is conducted into a skeletal muscle fiber by?
neuromuscular junctions Action potentials conduct down T tubules into skeletal muscles
How did the action potential generated with the unheated rod compare to the generated with the heated rod?
Heat information is conducted through neurones. Higher frequency action potentials are perceived in the brain as a hotter stimulus. So the heated rod would have sent higher-frequency action potentials than the cool rod would have.
Do action potentials become weaker with distance?
action potentials are non-decremental and do not get weaker with distance.
What is the Difference between a weak stimulus and intense stimulus?
The FREQUENCY of action potentials that are conducted into the central nervous system serves as the code for the strength of the stimulus. This frequency code is needed because the amplitude of action potentials is constatnt (all or none). Acting through changes in action potential frequency, tonic receptors thus provide information about the relative intensity of a stimulus.
What do intercalated discs transfer from cell to cell?
action potentials, ionic currents, the force of contraction and ionic currents and action potentials only
How does an action potential differ from a graded potential?
Action potentials also known as spikes, differ from graded potentials in that they do not diminish in strength as they travel through the neuron.
