Topics in Molecular Organization and Engineering

I The Description in Physico-Chemical Terms of Nervous System Properties.- I.1. Living systems as dissipative structures with local quasi equilibrium.- I.1.1. The creation of order by fluctuations.- I.1.2. Local quasi-equilibrium.- I.2. Information flows in living systems.- I.2.1. Measure of the amount of information.- I.2.2. The amount of information transmitted through trains of nerve impulses.- I.3. Evolution of the ideas about bioelectrogenesis. A brief account.- I.3.1. Prehistory of the study of excitability.- I.3.2. Nerve impulse as bioelectric event.- I.3.3. Studies of non-electric aspects of the nerve impulse.- I.3.4. Reception and transmission of excitation between cells.- References.- II Cell Membranes and Bioelectrogenesis.- II.1. The ubiquitous cellular component.- II.2. Membrane molecular components and their dynamics.- II.3. Silent and excitable membranes.- References.- III Phenomenological Aspects of Bioelectricity.- III.1. Resting potential of the cells.- III.1.a. Equilibrium transmembrane potentials.- III.1.b. Steady-state nonequilibrium transmembrane potential.- III.2. The passive propagation of potential changes. Axons as electric cables.- III.2.a. Membrane time and length constants.- III.2.b. Electrotonic propagation.- III.3. Regenerative propagation of action potentials in excitable membranes.- III.3.a. Ionic pathways in the axonal membranes.- III.4. Intercellular transmission of excitation.- III.4.a. Main events in chemical synaptic transmission.- III.4.b. Post-synaptic potentials.- III.5. An overview of bioelectric phenomena.- References.- IV Molecular Approaches of Bioelectricity.- A. Intermediary metabolism in brain.- B. Control of glycolysis.- C. Non oxidative consumption of glucose during neural activity.- D. The pentose shunt.- E. The amino acids pool.- F. Concluding remarks.- References.- V Puzzle of Nerve Impulse Thermodynamics.- V.1. Oxygen consumption and heat production inactive nerve.- V.2. Energy dissipation by Na+/K+ pumps in nerves.- V.3. Energy changes during the action potential.- V.3.a. Ionic dissipation of energy.- V.3.b. Capacitive energy changes.- V.3.c. Energetics of ionic conducting sites transitions.- V.4. Thermodynamic inconsistency of the kinetics of n, m and h parameters.- References.- VI Thiamine Triphosphate as the Specific Operative Substance in Spike-Generation.- Conclusion.- References.- VII. Merging Electrophysiology and Molecular Approaches.- VII.1. Single-channel recording.- VII.2. The structure of channel proteins.- VII.3. From molecular mechanisms to complex brain functions.- VII.4. Levels of unitary events.- References.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.