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- Dec 24, 2002
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Brown said:1. Decreasing the longitudinal axonal resistance. As the axoplasm resistance is constant this improvement can only be achieved by increasing the diameter of the axon (in the way that a length of copper of large diameter is of lower resistance than one of small diameter). If you like equations, this means that conduction velocity is proportional to the square root of axonal diameter. Selection pressure for high conduction velocities has resulted in the appearance of giant axons.
Brown,
Thanks a lot! Actually, that does help quite a bit. My physiology class has moved past neurons and action potentials, but my instructor has encouraged me to gather more information on ceph neurology (he's a bat person). He thought that they (giant cephs) might solve the issue of conduction velocity by means of larger overall axonal radii.
Now to figure out why they are immune to serin!
Sushi and Sake,
Fujisawa... AKA John of the Great Pacific Northwest
P.S. Welcome to TONMO!