Resistivity, Axial

Bekkers, John

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_35

John Bekkers³

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Synonyms

Cytoplasmic resistivity; Intracellular resistivity; R _i (Units: Ω Cm); Specific intracellular (or cytoplasmic) resistance

Definition

The axial resistivity, R _i, is a measure of the Ohmic resistance of the intracellular medium of a neuronal process (e.g., axon or dendrite). R _i is defined as the resistance of the medium contained within a fixed-radius cylinder of unit length and unit cross-sectional area, measured between the flat ends of the cylinder. The most commonly used units are Ω cm, in which case the dimensions of the cylinder are in cm. For neurons, R _i is typically on the order of 100 Ω cm.

Detailed Description

Explanation of the Units

R _i is a specific property of the intracellular medium that should not depend on the dimensions of the cylinder across which it is measured. If the length of the unit cylinder is increased to length L cm, then the total resistance, R _T, measured from one end of the cylinder to the other increases to R _i L, because current needs to...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
John Bekkers

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John Bekkers
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Correspondence to John Bekkers .

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Editors and Affiliations

Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Dieter Jaeger
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
Ranu Jung

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Bekkers, J. (2015). Resistivity, Axial. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_35

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_35
Published: 24 March 2015
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6674-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6675-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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