Reply to comment

I was confused about the analogy of the battery and the action potential when first introduced to the concept, yet I have come to understand it more after thursdays class. I do not like the idea of each action potential being like a flashlight turning on and off from a battery. Although it makes sense that the action potentials do turn on and off along an axon, it does not make me think of the action potential as a battery, but as multiple flashlights run by batteries along an axon. It is easier to think of an axon being a line of batteries where an action potential is produced when the positive end of a battery meets the negative of another battery. The electric current moves along the line of batteries, producing action potentials when crossing to a different battery, until it reaches the end and lights the flashlight. For me, the flashlight turning on in the end seems analogous to the action potential reaching a target neuron such as a motor neuron. I do not know if this makes sense to anyone else or how others would feel about this way of thinking though. 

The explanation of Erwin Schrodinger's theory helped me understand diffusion a lot more. I have learned it before, but never really thought about it as much as we did in class. It cleared up some questions I had about depolarization and hyperpolarization.

I think it is interesting that molecules moving randomly can depolarize a membrane and produce action potentials allowing for actions when I actually do want to produce an action. This makes me wonder how these ions know when to depolarize at the right time when I want to move or feel. It is because they are constantly depolarizing and the reason I do not produce an action is due to the action potential not reaching a target neuron? Is there something coming from the nervous system telling the ions to depolarize or not?