Information processing in the nervous system.

In the lecture, we will focus on the mechanisms of information generation and coding  in the nervous system. We will describe the resting membrane potential of a neuron, its origin and values, then the action potential of the neuron and the ionic currents that are its basis. We will describe local changes of membrane potentials such as receptor potentials and postsynaptic potentials, mechanisms of their generation and their temporal and spatial summation. We will explain the propagation of the action potential across the nerve fibre.

Basic terms:

Ion channels, transporters; ion composition of intracellular and extracellular fluid; resting membrane potential of the neuron; depolarization, repolarization, hyperpolarization; receptor potential, synaptic potential, excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials; propagation ith decrement;temporal and spatial summation; action potential, propagation without decrement, saltatory conduction; axon hillock; information coding.