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Bioelectric Potentials and Currents

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Abstract

In this book we will be examining the behavior of excitable cells, notably nerve and muscle, both descriptively and quantitatively. The behavior is described mostly in terms of the potentials and currents that excitable cells produce. These potentials and currents are observed in the cells’ interior volume, across their membranes, and in their surrounding conducting volume from the cell surface to the body surface. Such electrical signals are vital to the transmission of information in nerves, the initiation of contraction in muscles, and hence essential to vision, hearing, the heartbeat, digestion, and other biological processes. Despite the tremendously different functions of these organ systems, it is remarkable how extensively their underlying electrical systems share many basic principles of organization, and how fundamentally similar they remain in almost all living creatures.

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Plonsey, R., Barr, R.C. (2000). Bioelectric Potentials and Currents. In: Bioelectricity. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3152-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3152-1_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-3154-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-3152-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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