The century-old picture of a nerve spike is wrong: filaments fire, before membrane
Open accessAbstract
In 1907, Lapicque proposed that an electric field passes through the neuronal membrane and transmits a signal. Subsequently, a "snake curve" or spike was used to depict the means by which a linear flat current undergoes a sudden Gaussian or Laplacian peak. This concept has been the accepted scenario for more than 115 years even appearing in textbooks on the subject. It was not noted that the membrane spike should have a cylindrical shape. A nerve spike having a dot shape on membrane surface cannot propagate through a cylindrical surface since it would dissipate instantaneously. A nerve spike should have the appearance of a ring, encompassing the diameter of a cylindrical axon or dendron. However, this subtle change has remarkable implications. Maintaining a circular form of an electric field is not easy, especially at the surface of an organic object. Here, we suggest that neuroscience could redefine itself if we accept that a nerve spike is not a localized 3D Gaussian or Laplacian wave packet, rather it is a 3D ring encompassing the diameter of a neural branch.
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The Bandyopadhyay group has adapted methods from solid-state physics and quantum optics to noninvasively target known resonances of the MTs in living networks of neurons.
“Along these lines, the Bandyopadhyay group has adapted methods from solid-state physics and quantum optics to noninvasively target known resonances of the MTs in living networks of neurons (Singh et al., 2021a,b; Ghosh et al., 2022).”
From Microtubule-stabilizer epothilone B delays anesthetic-induced unconsciousness in rats (2024) · cites this paper as Ghosh et al., 2022
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References 25 · Cited by 15
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [5]Bandyopadhyay A. Nanobrain: the making of an artificial brain from a time crystal: taylor & Francis Inc. Bosa Roca United States: Imprint CRC Press Inc; 2020. p. 1– 336.
- [13]Lapicque L. Recherches quantitatives sur l’excitation électrique des nerfs traitée comme une polarisation. J Physiol Pathol Gen. 1907; 9: 620– 635.
- Authors
- Ghosh, S., Singh, P., Manna, J., Saxena, K., Sahoo, P., Krishnanda, S. D., Ray, K., Hill, J. P., & Bandyopadhyay, A.
- Affiliations
- North East Institute of Science and Technology (IN)
- Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (JP)
- Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IN)
- Dayalbagh Educational Institute (IN)
- Amity University Jaipur (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Bandyopadhyay, Anirban
- ORCID
- Venue
- Communicative & Integrative Biology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-05-10
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 115-120
- ISSN
- 1942-0889 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9103266
- OpenAlex
- W4280605391
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 1.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communicative & Integrative Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- NIMS Materials Data Repository (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development, [AOARD] (FA2386-16-1-0003 (2016–2019))
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ion channel regulation and function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
- Keywords
- action potential, neuronal membrane, electric field, axons, dendrons, signal propagation, history of neuroscience
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