Is there any difference how electrical current (therapeutically applied with an electrical stimulator) is transmitted in a myelinated or unmyelinated neuron?
Hi Ganesh,
As far as I known, the electric stimulation just triggers the depolarization of cells and thus the initiation of action potentials (AP). The way the AP are transmitted depends on the type of tissue or cells you are working with. In Myelinated neurons the conduction is saltatory in unmyelinated it is continuos.
Dear Ganesh
Due to the nature of the stimulation, a pulse-train, it is likely that the stimulation produces Evoked potential (or AP). In my view there is no difference in a myelinated or unmyelinated neuron. There may be a difference in electrical stimulation strength needed in order to generate an evoked potential a myelinated or unmyelinated, due to the insulating nature of the myeline.
Hi Ganesh
I'd like to add another fact to Tomas answer. As you know, each nerve fiber is consist of both myelinated and unmyelinated fibers with the threshold of myelinated fibers lower than unmyelinated (because their diameter is higher and according to ohm's low, a given change in voltage can induce higher currents across cell membrane). Thus, when you begin to stimulate a nerve fiber by increasing steps of intensities, the myelinated fibers will fire at first and unmyelinated fibers fires later. On the other hand a compound action potential will be recorded. You can separate the responses of myelinated and unmyelinated fibers by single unit recording technique.
Hi Ganesh,
The conduction is continuous in myelinated and unmyelinated norve fibres. No saltatory conduction at all. Read the paer by Stephanova D.I. (2001) Myelin as longitudinal conductor: a multi-layered model of the myelinated human motor nerve fibre. Biol. Cybern. 84:301-308.
this depends on the type of nerve fiber, if it is myelinated it will transmit electrical signal by saltatory conduction and if not it will do that by electrotonic conduction and that is why we get temporal dispersion on NCS and also we have fast conducting fibers which decide the overall conduction velocity
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