Please explain Diffusion in Neuroscience to me like I'm 5 years old

[Zeus2002]

TL;DR

Explain Diffusion in Neuroscience like I'm 5

I've been developing a deep fascination in neuroscience after experiencing cognitive decline for a while. I've been dabbling in medicinal mushrooms, supplements, meditation, among other treatments and therapies and feel much better but this lead to a deep fascination into how the brain actually works.

I'm taking Harvard's free online course on Neuroscience which I have been breezing through. One thing has stumped me and it's how diffusion works in the context of the membrane of a neuron. I understand what diffusion is in Physics though, it's lost on me in Biology.

 

[morrobay]

The de-polarization wave along a semi permeable neural membrane , ie a nerve impulse. Is driven by concentration gradients and ionic charges, Na+ and K+

 

[morrobay]

Are you sure the Harvard course does not answer your question? https://pll.harvard.edu/course/fundamentals-neuroscience-part-1-electrical-properties-neuron

 

[PeroK]

TL;DR Summary: Explain Diffusion in Neuroscience like I'm 5

Now, Zeus, I think you should leave neuroscience until you are a little older. Repeat after me:

1 x 1 = 1
1 x 2 = 2
...

 

[Zeus2002]

Are you sure the Harvard course does not answer your question? https://pll.harvard.edu/course/fundamentals-neuroscience-part-1-electrical-properties-neuron

It does but I didn't like how it was phrased I guess

 

[Pythagorean]

It depends on what you mean. At the molecular level, it's not any different than physics. It's just diffusion with ions (which also have electrical properties). Diffusion in the real world co-exists with turbulence and eddie currents (super diffusion) and crowding and tight geometry (subdiffusion) so in some cases that may be glossed over and/or treated as the canonical Brownian motion (i.e. normal diffusion) (See anomalous diffusion).

The other use of "diffusion" I'm familiar with is electrically coupled (as opposed to synaptically coupled) neurons because the coupling terms looks like a diffusion term so it's often called diffusive coupling. The term arises from "reaction-diffusion" systems, which is a "nonlinear systems" term and the electrical coupling plays a diffusive role in the reaction diffusion system (the neuron spiking being the reaction role).