The production and absorption of heat associated with electrical activity in nerve and electric organ

Abstract

SUMMARYAll living cells require a supply of energy from appropriate metabolic pathways in order in fulfill their physiological functions. A special function common to peripheral nerve fibres and the electroplates of the electric organ is the generation of electrical potentials and a consequent flow of current. A large fraction of their metabolism is therefore devoted basically to maintenance of the unequal distribution of sodium and potassium ions across the cell membranes on which their electrical excitability depends, and involves a consumption of ATP by the membrane-bound Na, K—ATPase system known as the sodium pump.