What is saltatory conduction?

Motor neurones have a myelin sheath made of Shwann cells. It's an electrical insulator meaning action potentials cannot pass through them. Along the axon there are gaps where there's no myelin sheath, called the 'Nodes of Ranvier'. Depolarisation of a neurone only occurs at these nodes and the cytoplasm of the neurone conducts enough of an action potential for the depolarisation to 'jump' along the nodes of the axon. This is called 'saltatory condution' and means that the impulse travels along the axon a lot faster on a myelinated neurone than a non-myelinated one as the imuplse doesn't have to travel along the whole length of the axon.

EB
Answered by Emily B. Biology tutor

2887 Views

See similar Biology A Level tutors

Related Biology A Level answers

All answers ▸

Describe three roles of membranes within cells.


Describe how phagocytosis of a virus leads to presentation of its antigens and how presentation of this antigen leads to the secretion of an antibody against this virus antigen.


DNA mismatch repair enzymes repair mainly bases on the newly synthesised DNA strand, using the old DNA strand as a template. If the mismatches were simply repaired without regard for which strand served as template, would this reduce replication errors ?


Use your knowledge of the movement of water to explain why honey has antibacterial properties


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences