Anode break excitation (ABE) is an electrophysiological phenomenon whereby a
neuron
A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...
fires
action potentials
An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, c ...
in response to termination of a
hyperpolarizing current.
When a hyperpolarizing current is applied across a membrane, the
electrical potential
The electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount of work energy needed to move a unit of electric charge from a reference point to the specific point in ...
across the membrane falls (becomes negative of the
resting potential A relatively static membrane potential which is usually referred to as the ground value for trans-membrane voltage.
The relatively static membrane potential of quiescent cells is called the resting membrane potential (or resting voltage), as oppo ...
); this fall is followed by a drop in the threshold required for action potential (since the threshold is directly linked to the potential across the membrane - they rise and fall together).
ABE arises after the hyperpolarizing current is terminated: the potential across the cell rises rapidly with the absence of hyperpolarizing stimulus, but the action potential threshold stays at its lowered value. As a result, the potential is suprathreshold: sufficient to cause an action potential within the cell.
Further reading
* {{cite journal , vauthors = Hodgkin AL, Huxley AF , title = A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve , journal = The Journal of Physiology , volume = 117 , issue = 4 , pages = 500–44 , date = August 1952 , pmid = 12991237 , pmc = 1392413 , doi = 10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004764
External links
A description of anode break excitation.
See also
*
Action potential
An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, ...
*
Hodgkin–Huxley model
The Hodgkin–Huxley model, or conductance-based model, is a mathematical model that describes how action potentials in neurons are initiated and propagated. It is a set of nonlinear differential equations that approximates the electrical charact ...
*
Neural accommodation Neural accommodation or neuronal accommodation occurs when a neuron or muscle cell is depolarised by slowly rising current (ramp function, ramp depolarisation) ''in vitro''. The Hodgkin–Huxley model also shows accommodation. Sudden depolarisation ...
Electrophysiology