Europhys. Lett, 36 (4), pp. 313-318 (1996)
G. Renversez
and O. Parodi
Centre de Physique Théorique (UPR CNRS 7061),
CNRS - Luminy case 907, F-13288 Marseille cedex 9, France
PACS. 87.22Fy - Active transport processes across biological membranes;
intracellular electron transport; energy transduction
(including photosynthesis and oxidative
phosphorylation).
PACS. 87.22Jb - Muscle contraction, nerve conduction, synaptic
transmission, memorization, and other
neurophysiological processes (excluding perception
processes and speech).
Abstract:
In recent experiments, inhomogeneities in the somatic membrane potential of a firing neuron have
been observed by Gogan et al. Ion channel interactions result in collective behavior which
might lead to spontaneous symmetry breaking. The simulations presented in this paper show that,
with a uniform distribution of ion channels, such spontaneous symmetry breaking is not to be
expected. On the other hand, a nonuniform distribution of ion channels effectively leads to a
nonuniform membrane potential distribution. The inhomogeneities therefore must reflect
inhomogeneities in the spatial distribution of ion channels.