The temperature-induced changes in membrane potential

Excitability and response properties of a neuron may vary in different environmental conditions of temperature. Increase/decrease of membrane potential has been observed under increase/decrease of temperature in the external side of membrane compared with internal temperature, i.e. the internal cell environment becomes more electronegative/electropositive in relation to the external one. Changes in temperature affected the amplitude of action potentials, measured as the voltage difference between the threshold and the peak, and their duration, measured as the width of the action potential at the threshold. As the temperature is increased, the amplitude of action potential is decreased and its duration is reduced. This parameter may influence the functioning of a neuron through the temperature dependence of ion channel conductance and time constants of channel activation/inactivation factors. Alterations in temperature affect the rates of diffusion through ion channels, the rates of conformational changes that lead to their activation and inactivation, and the rates of the biochemical reactions with which ion channels are modulated and transported into and out of membranes. Measurements of the propagated action potentials at different temperatures show that temperature has a double effect on the action potential: an increase of the Nernst equilibrium potentials when the absolute temperature is decreased and a change of the rate constants by a temperature factor. Temperature induced changes in the equilibrium potentials alone have little effect on the duration and amplitude of any action potentials but, because the cell membranes are permeable to more than one ion, the relation between the membrane potential and the Nernst equilibrium potentials shows different importance of the different ionic species in determining both resting and action potentials. In contrast, the temperature induced scaling of the rate constants can have quite dramatic effects on the duration of the action potential. As well as affecting the rate of action potential propagation, temperature influences the rate of neuron firing: the changes of action potential frequencies with temperature are associated, although not in a simple manner, with changes in resting potentials. Cooling reduces the resting potential (depolarization) and this leads to a rise in action potential frequencies; but certain nerve cells show a frequency increase when temperature is raised.