[Modeling adaptation of the membranes of the nodes of Ranvier of a nerve fiber to the action of a steady current as a result of sodium channel inactivation].

A modified version of the Hodgkin-Huxley model for the Ranvier node (Dodge model) was used to study an effect of the second order kinetics of the sodium channels' inactivation on impulse activity. Computations based on data obtained by Chiu and on those obtained by Kniffki et al. permitted suggesting that adaptation in amphibian nerve may be due to second order properties of the sodium inactivation system. Unlike potassium mechanism of adaptation the sodium mechanism predicts constancy or progressive decrease of spike amplitudes.