Classical cable theory uses mathematical models to calculate the flow of electric current (and accompanying voltage) along passive neurites, particularly the dendrites that receive synaptic inputs at different sites and times. Estimates are made by modeling dendrites and axons as cylinders composed of segments with capacitances and resistances combined in parallel (See Fig. 1). The capacitance of a neuronal fiber comes about because electrostatic forces are acting through the very thin phospholipid bilayer (See Figure 2). The resistances in series along the fiber is due to the axoplasm’s significant resistance to movement of electric charge.
Read more about Cable Theory: History, Deriving The Cable Equation, The Length Constant, The Time Constant, The Cable Equation With Length and Time Constants
Famous quotes containing the words cable and/or theory:
“To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.”
—Douglass Cross (b. 1920)
“By the “mud-sill” theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be—all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly.... Free labor insists on universal education.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)