AMaSiS 2021 - Abstract
Eisenberg, Robert
Illinois Institute of Technology, Rush University, USA
Nerve cells in the central nervous system are packed in a glial syncytium with spaces of only 20 nm between them, but they must avoid crosstalk, just as wires in a computer must. We show that convection through the glia is the dominant mechanism preventing crosstalk. Indeed, glial convection is likely to be crucial in clearing all wastes from the nervous system in health (sleep) and disease (migraine and epilepsy) using the recently discovered glymphatic system. These conclusions arise from analysis in space and time using the appropriate partial differential equations (and boundary conditions) for convection, migration, and diffusion. The flow of water and salt in optic nerve is analyzed with a multiphysics field theory derived from first physical principles, using the known anatomical structure. The results fit detailed biophysical measurements of action potentials and potassium clearance.