Hi All,
from this page:
Saltatory conduction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote:
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Because the cytoplasm of the axon is electrically conductive, and because the myelin inhibits charge leakage through the membrane, depolarization at one node of Ranvier is sufficient to elevate the voltage at a neighboring node to the threshold for action potential initiation. Thus in myelinated axons, action potentials do not propagate as waves, but recur at successive nodes and in effect "hop" along the axon, by which process they travel faster than they would otherwise. This process is outlined as the charge will passively spread to the next node of Ranvier to depolarize it to threshold which will then trigger an action potential in this region which will then passively spread to the next node and so on. This phenomenon was discovered by Ichiji Tasaki[1][2] and Andrew Huxley[3] and their colleagues.
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If at node N1, an AP is generated and then the passive spread initiates another AP at node N2, is there 2 APs existing at the same time?
In fact, the second AP is ever initiated before the first has ended. It seems it contradicts the theory?
