A quantitative description of membrane currents and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve

This article concludes a series of papers concerned with the flow of electric current through the surface membrane of a giant nerve fibre (Hodgkin, Huxley & Katz, 1952; Hodgkin & Huxley, 1952 a-c). Its general object is to discu the results of the preceding papers (Part I), to put them into mathematical form (Part II) and to show that they will account for con-duction and excitation in quantitative terms (Part III). PART I. DISCUSSION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The results described in the preceding papers suggest that the electrical behaviour of the membrane may be represented by the network shown in Fig. 1. Current can be carried through the membrane either by charging the membrane capacity or by movement of ion-s through the resistances in parallel with the capacity. The ionic current is divided into components carried by sodium and potassium ions (INa and IK), and a small 'leakage current ' (I,) made up by chloride and other ions. Each component of the ionic current is determined by a driving force which may conveniently be measured as a