2014/10/05 by Narges Moradi, Moradi, Narges, Felix Scholkmann +3
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Biological sciences #Ion channel regulation and function #Neural dynamics and brain function #Other Quantitative Biology (q-bio.OT) #q-bio.OT #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1410.1134
15 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, Accepted in J Integrative Neuroscience
arxiv created 2014/10/05 · openalex publication_date 2014/10/05 · arxiv updated 2015/04/28 · openalex created_date 2022/10/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model is a powerful model to explain different aspects of spike generation in excitable cells. However, the HH model was proposed in 1952 when the real structure of the ion channel was unknown. It is now common knowledge that in many ion-channel proteins the flow of ions through the pore is governed by a gate, comprising a so-called selectivity filter inside the ion channel, which can be controlled by electrical interactions. The selectivity filter is believed to be responsible for the selection and fast conduction of particular ions across the membrane of an excitable cell. Other (generally larger) parts of the molecule such as the pore-domain gate control the access of ions to the channel protein. In fact, two types of gates are considered here for ion channels: the external gate, which is the voltage sensitive gate, and the internal gate which is the selectivity filter gate (SFG). Some quantum effects are to expected in the SFG due to its small dimensions, which may play an important role in the operation of an ion channel. Here, we examine parameters in a generalized model of HH to see whether any parameter affects the spike generation. Our results indicate that the previously suggested semi-quantum-classical equation proposed by Bernroider and Summhammer (BS) agrees strongly with the HH equation under different conditions and may even provide a better explanation in some cases. We conclude that the BS model can refine the classical HH model substantially.