afterpotential

Also found in: Medical.

afterpotential

[′af·tərpə¦ten·chəl]

(neuroscience)

A small positive or negative wave that follows and is dependent on the main spike potential, seen in the oscillograph tracing of an action potential passing along a nerve.

References in periodicals archive ?

An examination of the effect of the holding potential ([V.sub.h]) of the large-cell on the amplitude of [I.sub.Ca] shows a maximum for a potential (-60 mV) close to the most hyperpolarized value observed during the afterpotential following a burst.

Reliable, responsive pacemaking and pattern generation with minimal cell numbers: the crustacean cardiac ganglion

Each Cr-Aint also produces prolonged self-excitatory GABAergic afterpotentials. The electrical coupling and recurrent excitation between the two Cr-Aint cells, as well as their autaptic self-excitation, were proposed to drive the long-lasting afterdischarge in the cerebral A motor neurons that project to the prey capture appendages (Norekian, 1993, 1999).

GABA as a Neurotransmitter in Gastropod Molluscs

Modeling the excitability of mammalian nerve fibers: influence of afterpotentials on the recovery cycle.