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Depolarization is essential to the function of many cells, communication between cells, and the overall physiology of an organism. Action potential in a neuron, showing depolarization, in which the cell's internal charge becomes less negative (more positive), and repolarization, where the internal charge returns to a more negative value.
The rapid depolarization of the cell, during phase 0, causes the membrane potential to approach sodium's equilibrium potential (i.e. the membrane potential at which sodium is no longer drawn into or out of the cell). As the membrane potential becomes more positive, the sodium channels then close and lock, this is known as the "inactivated" state.
An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell rapidly rises and falls. [1] This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of excitable cells, which include animal cells like neurons and muscle cells, as well as some plant cells.
In electrophysiology, the threshold potential is the critical level to which a membrane potential must be depolarized to initiate an action potential. In neuroscience, threshold potentials are necessary to regulate and propagate signaling in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS).
An action potential consists of three phases. Phase one is depolarization. During depolarization, voltage-gated sodium ion channels open, increasing the neuron's membrane conductance for sodium ions and depolarizing the cell's membrane potential (from typically -70 mV toward a positive potential). In other words, the membrane is made less negative.
Pacemaker potential. In the pacemaking cells of the heart (e.g., the sinoatrial node), the pacemaker potential (also called the pacemaker current) is the slow, positive increase in voltage across the cell 's membrane (the membrane potential) that occurs between the end of one action potential and the beginning of the next action potential.
Image showing the cardiac pacemaker or SA node, the primary pacemaker within the electrical conduction system of the heart. The contraction of cardiac muscle (heart muscle) in all animals is initiated by electrical impulses known as action potentials that in the heart are known as cardiac action potentials. The rate at which these impulses fire ...
When an action potential occurs in a cell, the electrical signal reaches the presynaptic terminal and the depolarization causes calcium channels to open, releasing calcium to travel down its electrochemical gradient. This influx of calcium subsequently is what causes the neurotransmitter vesicles to fuse with the presynaptic membrane. [16]