Chapter 12, Problem 27CP

Summary Introduction

To determine:

Refer to checkpoint question 26; determine the form of summation that will occur, if two EPSPs occur simultaneously.

Introduction:

An individual excitatory post synaptic potential (EPSP) alters the membrane potential by a very small amount (0.5 mV). The threshold level of potential to generate an action potential in the postsynaptic cell is 10 mV. Therefore, a single EPSP cannot generate an action potential. The summation of all the EPSPs occurs to generate the action potential. The summation may occur in two ways, namely temporal summation and spatial summation.