STANDING-WAVE OSCILLATIONS IN AXON-MEMBRANES AND THE ACTION-POTENTIAL

A standing wave description of dispersed colloidal particles of cubic lipid-water phases was recently introduced and extended to include cel l membranes. Standing wave oscillations of the bilayer is a direct con sequence of periodic curvature (two-dimensional crystallinity), with c urvature and elastic rigidity controlling frequency, amplitude and wav e-length. Only a minor increase in oscillation amplitudes is enough to achieve a transition from standing wave oscillation of a periodically curved bilayer to a bilayer moving between conformation extremes of o pposite sign in curvature (passing a cylindrical bilayer lacking perio dic curvature). Such a change in wave dynamics is proposed to be invol ved in the bilayer transition, which results in propagation of the act ion potential. Consequences of this model in excitation and signal con duction are discussed. This standing wave structure of nerve membranes can explain certain experimental and physiological phenomena, which e arlier seemed paradoxical. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.