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There has been a convergence in recent years of people from the physical and biological sciences and from various engineering disciplines who are interested in analyzing the electrical activity of nerve and muscle quantita tively. Various courses have been established at the graduate level or final-year undergraduate level in many universities to teach this subject matter, yet no satisfactory short text has existed. The present book is an attempt to fill this gap, and arises from my experience in teaching this material over the past fifteen years to students on both sides of the Atlantic. Although covering a wide range of biophysi cal topics from the level of single molecules to that of complex systems, I have attempted to keep the text relatively short by considering only examples of the most general interest. Problems are included whenever possible at the end of each chapter so the reader may test his understand ing of the material presented and consider other examples which have not been included in the text.
List of contents
1. Membrane Organization.- Phospholipids.- Membrane Proteins.- Myelin.- 2. Membrane Thermodynamics.- Equilibrium Thermodynamics.- Osmotic Equilibrium.- Irreversible Thermodynamics.- Problems.- 3. Carrier Transport.- Facilitated Transport.- Active Transport.- Effects of the Na+ Pump.- Problems.- 4. Membrane Permeability and Voltage.- Equilibrium (Nernst Equation).- Electrical Steady State.- Chemical Steady State.- Ussing's Flux-Ratio Test.- Constant Field Assumption.- Problems.- 5. Ionic Currents in Nerve and Muscle.- Voltage Clamp Technique.- Assumptions of the Hodgkin-Huxley Equations.- Form of the Equations.- Structure of the Channels.- Role of Ca+ + Ions.- Cardiac Muscle.- Problems.- 6. Cable Theory and Extracellular Recording.- Assumptions and Definitions.- Derivation of the Basic Cable Equation.- Unmyelinated Fibers.- Myelinated Fibers.- Comparison with Experimental Data.- Linear Cables.- Extracellular Recording.- Problems.- 7. Synaptic and Neuromuscular Transmission.- Presynaptic Mechanisms.- Statistics of Transmitter Release.- Facilitation and Depression of Transmitter Release.- Presynaptic Inhibition.- Postsynaptic Mechanisms.- Synaptic Channels.- Modified Interactions between Nerve and Muscle.- Problems.- 8. Muscular Contraction.- Muscle Proteins.- Contraction Cycle and Sliding Filaments.- Contraction Kinetics.- Energetics of Contraction.- Excitation-Contraction Coupling.- Motor Units.- Viscoelastic Properties.- Problems.- 9. Sensory Receptors.- Crustacean Stretch Receptors.- Impulse Generation.- Input-Output Relations.- Classification of Nerve Fibers.- Muscle Spindles.- Frequency-Response Curves.- Statistical Properties of Impulse Trains.- Transmission of Information.- Problems.- 10. Control of Movement.- Reflexes..- Size Principle..- Feedback Systems..-Stability and Oscillations: Physiological Tremor..- Pattern Generation..- What is Controlled?.- Problems.- Solutions to Problems.- References.
