Analysis of a model of membrane potential for a skin receptor

A linear model for the membrane potential of a nerve ending associated with a sense-of-touch skin receptor is formulated and analyzed. Because the ner ve has cytoplasmic extensions and is stimulated through a membrane strain m echanism, the model is a generalized cable equation with linear oblique bou ndary conditions (i.e. boundary conditions involving both time and space de rivatives). The model is stimulated through a certain conductance parameter . We establish solutions for the problem and we consider a particular physi ological question, both analytically and computationally, of determining co nditions on parameters and stimulus which give threshold level potential va lues at a particular boundary point. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.