The unified cross-disciplinary model of the operation of neurons

TL;DR

This paper presents a unified physical model of neuronal operation that integrates electrical, mechanical, and thermodynamic principles, improving upon classical models and explaining key neural phenomena from first principles.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive cross-disciplinary model that refines the Hodgkin-Huxley framework and derives neural properties from fundamental physics, resolving longstanding mysteries.

Findings

Derives resting potential from first principles, not ad hoc equations.

Introduces an 'equivalent thermodynamic electric field' for ion channel discussion.

Explains the robustness of resting potential during growth and evolution.

Abstract

Physics perfectly describes neuronal operation, provided that we take into account that biology uses slow, positively charged ions rather than electrons as charge carriers and remove untested ad hoc hypotheses that contradict science's first principles. We also incorporate recent experimental discoveries into the outdated classic theoretical description. Lipid mechanisms are really very important for cellular biology, but they are certainly not suitable for describing the phenomena we discuss. We introduce the correct physical model, significantly enhancing the classic \gls{HH} model; furthermore, the fundamentally bio-electrically triggered operation leads to changes in the electrical, mechanical, and thermodynamic properties of living matter. We derive the resting potential from first principles of science, showing that it is unrelated to an ad hoc linear combination of mobilities or reversal potentials, as the \gls{GHK} equation claims. Furthermore, we derive an "equivalent thermodynamic electric field" that enables discussion of, among others, the operation of ion channels, their ion selectivity, and voltage sensing. We demonstrate that a simple electrical-thermodynamic control circuit regulates neuronal operation, setting and maintaining a stable resting potential and handling an unstable transient process known as the \gls{AP}. Its setpoint entirely defines the resting potential, explaining its robustness during growth and evolution. Our cross-disciplinary approach naturally fuses the electrical and mechanical/thermodynamic description of neuronal operation, resolves the decades-old mystery of "heat absorption" and "leakage current" (with their far-reaching consequences), and derives the thermodynamic description of neural computing. We defy that science cannot describe life.