Abstract

We derive a one-dimensional cable model for the electric potential propagation along an axon. Since the typical thickness of an axon is much smaller than its length, and the myelin sheath is distributed periodically along the neuron, we simplify the problem geometry to a thin cylinder with alternating myelinated and unmyelinated parts. Both the microstructure period and the cylinder thickness are assumed to be of order epsilon, a small positive parameter. Assuming a nonzero conductivity of the myelin sheath, we find a critical scaling with respect to epsilon which leads to the appearance of an additional potential in the homogenized nonlinear cable equation. This potential contains information about the geometry of the myelin sheath in the original three-dimensional model.