Principles of Computational Modelling in Neuroscience

This chapter presents the first quantitative model of active membrane properties, the Hodgkin–Huxley model. This was used to calculate the form of action potentials in the squid giant axon. Our step-by-step account of the construction of the model shows how Hodgkin and Huxley used the voltage clamp method to produce the experimental data required to construct mathematical descriptions of how the sodium, potassium and leak currents depend on the membrane potential. Simulations of the model produce action potentials similar to experimentally recorded ones and account for the threshold and refractory effects observed experimentally. Whilst subsequent experiments have uncovered limitations in the Hodgkin–Huxley model descriptions of the currents carried by different ions, the Hodgkin–Huxley formalism is a useful and popular technique for modelling channel types.