| From membrane excitability to metazoan psychology Aug 27th 2014, 00:00, by Norman D. Cook, Gil B. Carvalho, Antonio Damasio The importance of excitable membranes was understood implicitly in early research on both unicellular protozoan organisms (Protista) [1,2] and the neurons of multicellular metazoan organisms (animals) [3], but did not become explicit until the electrophysiological discoveries on transmembrane ion movement during the mid-20th century [4–6]. Over the past two decades, the molecular structure of ion-channel proteins [7,8] and their evolutionary genetics [9] have been largely elucidated and it is now apparent that the influx of cations across semipermeable membranes is the mechanism that underlies the excitability of: (i) sensory receptor cells; (ii) neurons; and (iii) muscle cells in all animal organisms. |
