Modelling in vivo action potential propagation along a giant axon (Q2512931)

The authors study a partial differential equation model for current flow in a three-dimensional cylindrical axon. They consider two cases: the conductivity of the surrounding tissue is (i) significantly lower than that of the intracellular space, and (ii) equal to that of the intracellular space. Case (i) represents the in vivo setting, while case (ii) represents the in vitro setting. The authors compare the results of simulating the PDE with those obtained by simulating the one-dimensional cable equation and find good agreement in case (ii) but marked differences in both wave profile and speed of action potential propagation in case (i). They investigate the scaling of wave speed with axon radius (it scales as the square root of the radius) but find that the speed is significantly higher in vitro than in vivo. Regarding maximising the speed of action potential propagation, they suggest that despite their results, metabolic cost is still a limiting factor in determining the size of an axon.