Howarth J V
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1975 Jun 10;270(908):425-32. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1975.0020.
Experiments with the C fibres of the rabbit vagus nerve have established that heat is evolved during the depolarizing phase of the action potential and is absorbed during the repolarizing phase. Subsequent studies using the pike olfactory nerve indicate that the heat production begins at a high rate very early in the depolarizing phase and is completed in advance of the peak of the spike. This would be expected if the heat arised from the energy released by the discharge of the membrane capacitance which varies as the square of the membrane potential; but estimates of the stored energy fall short of the observed heat production by a factor of two or three times. The prominent cooling phase suggests that a substantial part of the heat may arise from an entropy change. Such an entropy change would be expected to result from the change in the electrical stress in the dielectric of the membrane capacitance, and may thus be manifestation of reversible changes in the molecular architecture of the insulating matrix of the membrane.
对兔迷走神经C纤维的实验已证实，在动作电位的去极化阶段会产生热量，而在复极化阶段会吸收热量。随后使用梭子鱼嗅神经进行的研究表明，产热在去极化阶段很早就以很高的速率开始，并在尖峰峰值之前完成。如果热量源于膜电容放电释放的能量（该能量随膜电位的平方而变化），那么情况就会如此；但对储存能量的估计比观察到的产热少两到三倍。明显的冷却阶段表明，大部分热量可能源于熵变。这种熵变预计是由膜电容电介质中电应力的变化引起的，因此可能是膜绝缘基质分子结构可逆变化的表现。
