Primary and secondary components of nerve signals

Abstract

The action potential propagating in a nerve fibre generates accompanying mechanical and thermal effects. The whole signal is therefore an ensemble which includes primary and secondary components. The primary components of a signal are the action potential itself and longitudinal mechanical waves in axoplasm and surrounding biomembrane. These components are characterized by corresponding velocities. The secondary components of a signal are derived from primary components and include transverse displacement of a biomembrane and the temperature -- these have no independent velocities but have been measured in several experiments. A robust mathematical model is presented based on differential equations describing the signal primary components which are coupled into a system by coupling forces. The model includes also mathematical formulation for establishing the secondary components following the ideas from experimental studies.