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Biology a level - saltatory conduction

Lebkuchen

I'm finding it so hard to understand this concept?
can someone please help to explain it?

Reply 1

lil_lily__

Original post by Lebkuchen

I'm finding it so hard to understand this concept?
can someone please help to explain it?

Original post by Lebkuchen

I'm finding it so hard to understand this concept?
can someone please help to explain it?

it’s essentially just that the axons of neurones (not all but i’d say most) are insulated - like you would insulate a wire - so that the signal can travel along the axon more quickly. this insulation called myelination and is just a myelin sheath. however, the insulation doesn’t cover 100% of the length of the axon and instead has lots of little gaps which are called nodes of Ranvier. what this essentially means is that the signal (the action potential), cannot travel wherever the axon is myelinated, so it just “jumps” from one node to the next, and it means the signal as a whole travels faster, because each time it “jumps” it is skipping over a chunk of the axon, the same way that hopping over stones along a river would take less time than having to wade your way through it, the stones are the nodes, the water is the myelinated axon (not the best analogy but the only thing that came to my head lol). hope that can help!

Reply 2

Lebkuchen

tysm

I think it makes more sense now
for the leaky ion channels and ion channels in general - are they specific in which direction the ions can move in/out of the axon?