Interaction and adiabatic evolution of orthodromic and antidromic impulses in the axoplasmic fluid

TL;DR

This paper explores the interaction and evolution of nerve impulses in axoplasmic fluid, demonstrating that impulses can penetrate each other contrary to traditional models, using a nonlinear soliton framework.

Contribution

It introduces a soliton-based model for nerve impulses, showing their interaction dynamics in axoplasmic fluid, differing from Hodgkin-Huxley predictions.

Findings

Impulses penetrate each other in axoplasmic fluid as shown experimentally.

The damped NLSE effectively models impulse behavior.

Perturbation theory describes impulse interaction and evolution.

Abstract

Unlike expected from the Hodgkin-Huxley model predictions, in which there is annihilation once orthodromic and antidromic impulses collide, the Heimburg-Jackson model demonstrates that both impulses penetrate each other as it has been shown experimentally. These impulses can be depicted as low amplitude nonlinear excitations in a weakly dissipative soliton model described by the damped NLSE. In view of the above, the Karpman-Solov'ev-Maslov perturbation theory turns out to be ideal to study the interaction and adiabatic evolution of orthodromic and antidromic impulses once axoplasmic fluid is present.