Hodgkin, Huxley, 1952

Model Status

This version has had a stimulus protocol component added to allow the model to simulate multiple action potentials, has been unit checked and curated and is known to run in COR and PCEnv.

Model Structure

In a series of papers published in 1952, A.L. Hodgkin and A.F. Huxley presented the results of a series of experiments in which they investigated the flow of electric current through the surface membrane of the giant nerve fibre of a squid. In the summary paper of the Hodgkin and Huxley model, the authors developed a mathematical description of the behaviour of the membrane based upon these experiments, which accounts for the conduction and excitation of the fibre. The form of this description has been used as the basis for almost all other ionic current models of excitable tissues, including Purkinje fibres and cardiac atrial and ventricular muscle.

The summary paper is cited below:

A Quantitative Description of Membrane Current and its Application to Conduction and Excitation in Nerve, A. L. Hodgkin and A. F. Huxley, 1952, The Journal of Physiology, 117, 500-544. PubMed ID: 12991237

A schematic cell diagram describing the current flows across the cell membrane that are captured in the Hodgkin Huxley model.