Ionic basis of the action potential (Hodgkin-Huxley)
Mecanismo iónico del potencial de acción
- Date
- 1939-1952 · confidence high
- Place
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory / Cambridge, England
- Credited to
- Alan Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley, Bernard Katz
- People
- 👤 Alan Lloyd Hodgkin1914–1998👤 Andrew Fielding Huxley1917–2012👤 Bernard Katz1911–2003
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Using the giant squid axon and voltage clamping they quantitatively described how sodium and potassium flows generate the nerve impulse. The first mathematical model of a cellular process.
Nobel Prize 1963.
What it led to
- quantitative neurophysiology
- ion channels (Neher and Sakmann, patch clamp)
- computational neuroscience
- antiepileptics and local anaesthetics
Built on
- Animal electricity (Galvani)1780-1791
- Neuron doctrine (Cajal)1888-1894
- Galvani's animal electricity
- Bernstein and membrane theory
Made possible
- Synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation1949-1973
- patch clamp
- clinical electrophysiology