Short Term Plasticity as 'Energetic memory' of ion Channels Components of Action Potential

Abstract Information transfer in the nervous system is traditionally understood by means of transmission of action potentials along neuronal dendrites, with ion channels in the membrane as the basic unit operator for their creation and propagation. We present here a new model for the multiphysics behavior of ion channels and the action potential dynamics in nervous and other signal-transmitting systems. This model builds on the notion of long-term memory-like action potential suppression as a response to mechanical input. While other models focus on the electrical aspects of the action potential, an increasing body of experiments has highlighted its electro-mechanical nature, and, in particular, point towards an alteration of the action potential when subjected to a mechanical input. Here, we propose a new phenomenological framework able to capture the mechanical memory-like dynamics of ion channels and the resulting effect on the overall electrophysiology of the membrane. The model is introduced through a set of coupled differential equations that describe the system while agreeing with the general findings of those experiments. It also confirms that transient quasi-static mechanical loads reversibly affect the amplitude and rate of change of the neuronal action potentials, which are smaller and slower upon indentation loading conditions. Changes after the loading release are also reversible albeit in a different time scale.