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RESISTANCE VALUES IN A SYNCYTIUM
Author(s) -
George EP
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
australian journal of experimental biology and medical science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0004-945X
DOI - 10.1038/icb.1961.27
Subject(s) - syncytium , constant (computer programming) , physics , mathematics , combinatorics , biology , virus , computer science , virology , programming language
SUMMARY Cable theory has been extended to include the case where the cable divides into two after a distance 1, the two branches again dividing and so on indefinitely. This is referred to as the open syncytium. The electrical behaviour is dependent on the ratio 1/λ: for 1/λ ≫ 1, R ∝ r m 0.5 where λ is the attenuation length, R is the input resistance and r m the membrane resistance; for 1/λ ≪ 1 it is found that R is constant. For intermediate values of 1/λ the dependence of R on r m lies between these two limits. The case has also been considered where some of the branches loop back into parental branches. This has been called the closed syncytium. An extreme example of the closed syncytium is where the loops form a close‐packed hexagonal array. In this case, for 1/λ ≫ 1, R ∝ r m 0.5 as for the open syncytium. However, for 1/λ ≪ 1, there is a significant difference between the two structures and now R is not constant but R ∝ r m 0.25 approx.