Computation of High Safety Factor Impulse Propagation at Axonal Branch Points

The propagation of single impulses at axonal branch points and widenings was computed numerically. Previous computational studies have held that an action potential propagates across an unmyelinated axonal branch point with diameter-dependent lowered likelihood, such that increasingly complex arborizations could eliminate propagating information. This result is counter-intuitive to the principle of information divergence within neuronal circuits. The present study re-examined this result. The boundary conditions at a branch point were extracted from a physical analog circuit with actual branches. The main results were that impulse propagation was reliable past branch points and widenings, and that conduction velocity changed spatially as a function of fiber geometrical inhomogeneity.