The Biophysics of Nerve Cells

Thomas Heimburg has been an Associate Professor for Biophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen since 2003, where he is the head of the Membrane Biophysics Group. He studied Physics in Stuttgart and Gottingen, Germany. He obtained his PhD in 1989 at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen. After being a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia from 1989-1990 he received his Habilitation degree in the field of Biophysics at the University of Gottingen in 1995. From 1997-2003 he was leader of an independent research group at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen. Thomas Heimburg has authored around 80 original articles and book chapters, and is the single author of a textbook called "Thermal Biophysics of Membranes, Wiley-VCH 2007". He is Editorial Board member of the Journal "Biophysical Chemistry".

Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 History of neuroscience
1.2 Nerves
1.3 Electrophysiological findings from Bernstein, Hodgkin-Huxley until today
1.3.1 Julius Bernstein
1.3.2 Curtis & Cole
1.3.3 Hodgkin & Huxley
1.3.4
1.4 Physical findings from Galvani to Tasaki
1.4.1 Galvani & Volta
1.4.2 Helmholtz
1.4.3 Wilke
1.4.4 A. V. Hill
1.4.5 Tasaki
1.5 Membrane permeability
1.5.1 protein channels
1.5.2 lipid channels
1.6 The Hodgkin-Huxley model
1.7 The electromechanical soliton model
1.8 Anesthesia
1.9 Some thoughts about the nature of a scientific theory

2 Experimental data on nerve pulse propagation
2.1 Current and voltage measurements
2.1.1 Membranes as capacitors
2.1.2 The ion selectivity of membranes
2.2 The heat production of nerve
2.3 Mechanical measurements on nerves
2.4 Optical observations

3 The electrophysiological interpretation of nerve data
3.1 The Hodgkin Huxley model
3.2 The FitzHugh-Nagumo Model .

4 Biomembrane theory
4.1 Introduction into thermodynamic
4.2 Thermodynamics of membranes
4.2.1 Membrane melting
4.3 Entropy as a potential
4.4 Fluctuations
4.5 Thermodynamics variables
4.5.1 voltage
4.5.2 pressure

5 Biomembrane composition, melting and adaptation
5.1 Composition
5.2 Biomembrane melting

6 Introduction into hydrodynamics
6.1 History
6.2 The hydrodynamic equations
6.3 Hydrodynamics of membranes

7 Solitons
7.1 History
7.2 Bussinesc solitons

8 Experimental properties of membranes
8.1 heat capacity
8.2 compressibility
8.3 sound velocity
8.3.1 sound propagation on monofilms
8.4 dispersion

9 The electromechanical theory for nerves
9.1 Solitary pulses
9.2 Pulse trains and refractory period
9.3 Stability of pulses
9.4 Pulse energy
9.5 Pulse generation

10 Permeability and Channels
10.1 History
10.2 Patch clamp and black lipid membranes
10.3 Analyzing permeability data
10.4 Channel proteins
10.4.1 Poisons
10.4.2 Mutations
10.4.3 The impossibility of temperature-sensing receptors
10.5 Lipid membrane permeability
10.5.1 Lipid membrane channels
10.5.2 Pore theories
10.5.3 Dependence on the thermodynamic variables
10.5.4 The correlation between membrane properties and protein ion channel function
10.5.5 Sub-levels and power laws

11 Anesthesia
11.1 History
11.2 General anesthestics
11.3 Meyer-Overton rule
11.4 Local anesthetics
11.4.1 What is the dfference between local and general anesthetics
11.5 The action of anesthetics on membranes
11.6 The action of anesthetics on proteins
11.7 Cantor's model for the lateral pressure profile
11.8 Thermodynamics of anesthetics.
11.9 Clinical findings

12 Some observations about human diseases linked to thermodynamic variables.

13 Overview over electromechanical theory.