Summary of a Theory of Bioelectric Excitation

Abstract

This is a preliminary statement of an unpublished theory that interprets electrophysiological data by considering the kinetics of organic biochemical reactions. I refer to some of these reactions as bioelectrochemical, meaning that they employ physiological electrodes and proceed as electric currents. Electrodes can catalyze faster reactions with less heat production than would be possible without them. This short paper cannot present the entire theory. Neither can it present the equations and experimental evidence. But it does explain how one coenzyme can modulate both the inward and outward currents of a voltage-clamped preparation, how, in other words, it can serve the purpose presently ascribed to two gated channels.