Ephaptic coupling is indirect communication within the nervous system

Nervous system

The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...

 through extracellular electric field

Electric field

In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding...

s, as opposed to direct communication via electrical synapse

Electrical synapse

An electrical synapse is a mechanical and electrically conductive link between two abutting neurons that is formed at a narrow gap between the pre- and postsynaptic neurons known as a gap junction. At gap junctions, such cells approach within about 3.5 nm of each other, a much shorter...

s or chemical synapse

Chemical synapse

Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which neurons signal to each other and to non-neuronal cells such as those in muscles or glands. Chemical synapses allow neurons to form circuits within the central nervous system. They are crucial to the biological computations that underlie...

s. Ephaptic communication has been observed in myelinated nerve fiber

Nerve fiber

A nerve fiber is a threadlike extension of a nerve cell and consists of an axon and myelin sheath in the nervous system. There are nerve fibers in the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. A nerve fiber may be myelinated and/or unmyelinated. In the central nervous system , myelin...

s.

Recent research has shown evidence for ephaptic coupling in the cortex

Cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

 of the brain

Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...

.. This is remarkable evidence that changes in electric field contribute to computations performed in the brain .

See also

• Saltatory conduction
  Saltatory conduction
  Saltatory conduction is the propagation of action potentials along myelinated axons from one node of Ranvier to the next node, increasing the conduction velocity of action potentials without needing to increase the diameter of an axon.-Mechanism:Because the cytoplasm of the axon is electrically...
  
  
• Electroencephalography
  Electroencephalography
  Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
  
  
• Spike-field coherence
• NeuroElectroDynamics
  NeuroElectroDynamics
  NeuroElectroDynamics or NED is the study of the dynamics and interaction of electrical charges in the brain [1]. The word neuroelectrodynamics is derived from neuro- meaning neurons, electro- electric field and -dynamics meaning movement....