Neuroscience Animations

John H. Krantz, Hanover College, krantzj@hanover.edu

Using the Media

Topics

Neurons

Psychophysics

Vision

Audition

Skin Senses

Statistical Concepts

Hanover College
Psychology Department

Basic Neuron Functioning

• Membrane Potentials

  • Nernst/Goldman Equation Illustration 1.  The Nernst and Goldman equations provide mathematical descriptions of how the different ions contribute to both the resting and different phases of the action potential.  (straight to applet).

  • Sodium/Potassium Pump.  This interactivity allows you to observe the operation of the sodium/potassium pump and its role in maintaining the balance of sodium and potassium inside and outside the neuron. (straight to applet).

• Action Potential

  • The Action Potential.  This interactivity illustrates the events at the membrane as an action potential passes by.  (straight to applet).

• Generating Action Potentials

  • Spatial and Temporal Summation.  This interactivity allows you to explore what is necessary to both increase and reduce the likelihood of synaptic communication to cause neurons to fire. (straight to applet).

  • Neural Coding.  To be able to function, the brain have a way of changing differences in stimulation or thoughts into different patterns of firing in the brain.  This is called neural coding.  This interactivity introduces a few basic types of neural coding.  (straight to applet).

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