My watch list
my.chemeurope.com  
Login  

Threshold potential



  The threshold potential is the membrane potential to which a membrane must be depolarized to initiate an action potential.

It often can be between −40 and -55 mV, but it can vary based upon several factors. If ion channels are available, that will move the potential in the direction of the equilibrium potential for that ion:

Therefore, resting ion channel for sodium will depolarize and thus excite, while channels for potassium or chloride will hyperpolarize and thus inhibit.

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Threshold_potential". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE