+44 7480725689 Corina S. Drapaca
Pennsylvania State University, USA
ScientificTracks Abstracts: Neurosci
In myelinated neurons, action potentials happen only at specialized locations of the axons called nodes of Ranvier. Biochemical interactions among neurons, glial cells, blood flow, and the extracellular space control the shapes, timings, and propagation speeds of the action potentials. The complexity of brain structure and processes suggests that anomalous diffusion of ions and water in the vicinity of the nodes of Ranvier could affect the propagation of action potentials. Since anomalous diffusion through various materials has been successfully modelled using fractional calculus, this study proposes a spatio-temporal fractional cable equation for action potentials propagation in myelinated neurons. Numerical simulations are used to investigate the impact of the ionic anomalous diffusion on the distribution of the membrane potential. The results show spatially narrower action potentials at the nodes of Ranvier when using spatial derivatives of the fractional order only and delayed or lack of action potentials when adding a temporal derivative of the fractional order. The spatially narrower shape of the action potentials resembles experimentally observed action potentials better than the shape predicted by the classic cable equation. Delayed or lack of action potentials bear the mark of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer�s disease, which have become more prevalent in the latest years
Drapaca is an applied mathematician, who got her BS and MS from University of Bucharest, Romania and her PhD from University of Waterloo, Canada. She has held postdoctoral positions at the University of California in San Francisco and Mayo Clinic. In 2007, Drapaca became a faculty member of the Pennsylvania State University and she is currently an Associate Professor. Drapaca’s expertise is in mathematical modelling of brain multiphysics and multiscale processes, continuum mechanics, medical image processing, and computational analysis. The focus of her research is understanding mechanisms of onset and evolution of brain diseases through mathematical models and numerical simulations.
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