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arXiv · 0811.3371

Noise-assisted spike propagation in myelinated neurons

Anna Ochab-Marcinek·Gerhard Schmid·Igor Goychuk·Peter Hänggi
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Abstract

We consider noise-assisted spike propagation in myelinated axons within a multi-compartment stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley model. The noise originates from a finite number of ion channels in each node of Ranvier. For the subthreshold internodal electric coupling, we show that (i) intrinsic noise removes the sharply defined threshold for spike propagation from node to node, and (ii) there exists an optimum number of ion channels which allows for the most efficient signal propagation and it corresponds to the actual physiological values.

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Anna Ochab-Marcinek, Gerhard Schmid, Igor Goychuk, Peter Hänggi. 2008-11-20. Noise-assisted spike propagation in myelinated neurons. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.79.011904

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