Testing out the model in a computer simulation, the researchers found that when they applied an electric field to the channel, the ions in the water formed worm-like structures. "In physics, two dimensions is very weird," said Bocquet. Bocquet said that the researchers wanted to use this two-dimensional environment because particles tend to react much more strongly in two dimensions than in three, and they exhibit different properties in two dimensions, which the researchers thought might be useful for their experiment. The water layers in the simulations were one, two, or three molecules in depth, which the researchers characterized as a quasi-two-dimension slit. To mimic voltage-gated ion channels, the researchers modeled a thin layer of water between sheets of graphene, which are extremely thin sheets of carbon.
The signal is then transmitted to other cells, enabling information to travel in the brain. The electrical potential, or voltage across the cell membrane, causes doorways on the cell called voltage-gated ion channels to open, raising the charge even more before the cell reaches a peak and returns to normal a few milliseconds later. To generate an action potential, a neuron starts to let in more positive ions, which are attracted to the negative ions inside of the cell. "To my knowledge, it's the first time that people this with ions," said study co-author Lydéric Bocquet, a physicist at the École Normale Supérieure.Īt a finer level, the researchers created a system that mimics the process of generating action potentials -spikes in electrical activity generated by neurons that are the basis of brain activity.
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