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Repetitive activity of a molluscan neurone driven by maintained currents: A supercritical bifurcation

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Summary

The amplitude and rate of transient and maintained responses of an identified giant neurone of the pond-snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, to a maintained injected current were investigated. The responses of the isopotential soma to a maintained current density of less than 10 μA cm-2 includes repetitive discharges of action potentials, sawtooth oscillations and amplitudemodulated oscillations. The frequency of the maintained response increases as the injected current increases, while the amplitude decreases until the maintained response is a stable steady state at a membrane potential of about -20mV. This bifurcation from small amplitude periodic solutions to a depolarized stable steady state has the characteristics of a supercritical Hopf bifurcation.

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Author notes

  1. S. M. Ramadan

    Present address: Dept. of Physics, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, University of Leeds, Leeds, England

    A. V. Holden & S. M. Ramadan

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  1. A. V. Holden
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  2. S. M. Ramadan
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Holden, A.V., Ramadan, S.M. Repetitive activity of a molluscan neurone driven by maintained currents: A supercritical bifurcation. Biol. Cybern. 42, 79–85 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00336725

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00336725

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