Title: An Overview of the Hodgkin-Huxley and FitzHugh-Nagumo Models

Speaker:
James F. Selgrade
Department of Mathematics and Biomathematics Program
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8205

Abstract:
Nerve cells (neurons) communicate via electrical signals called action
potentials.  The Hodgkin-Huxley model describes how an electrical stimulus
and the flow of ions through the neuron membrane give rise to this action
potential.  The Hodgkin-Huxley 4-dimensional system of ordinary
differential equations will be derived.  The simpler FitzHugh-Nagumo model
will be introduced and numerically simulated to illustrate how the
fast-slow dynamics of a singularly perturbed system gives a mathematical
explanation of the action potential and cell excitability.