A mathematical based calculation of a myelinated segment in axons

• Main Authors: Namazi, Hamidreza., Kulish, Vladimir V.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/85518; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/16772
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The brain is a complicated system that controls all of the body's actions and reactions by receiving and processing different stimuli and producing the proper responses. The brain accomplishes this task using various sensory elements such as neurons. The axon is the most important element of the neuron in terms of signal generation and propagation. Although much effort has been made studying the characteristics of the axon, there is no research that focuses on measuring the length of this element from a mathematical point of view. In this paper, we propose for the first time a new mathematical model of the generation of action potentials in the axon. Using this model and the diffusion phenomenon in axons, we propose a characteristic length for the myelinated segments in axons. This mathematically calculated value is corroborated by comparison with values measured by biologists.