Brain Dynamics:

Spike Challenge 3

Spikes might form in place, but then they’re off-- traveling long distances down branches of neurons called axons and sending a signal to downstream cells.

 

 

Numerical data from Cyrill Muratov (Biophys J, 79(2), pp. 2893-2901, 2000).

If one looks at a particular cell, each spike that goes by seems to do so at the same speed – 21.1 mm per second, for example.

The third mathematical challenge, then, is to uncover the mechanism that makes spikes translate down axons.



Brain visualizations courtesy of Chris Johnson and Nathan Galli, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah