Minimizing the caliber of myelinated axons by means of nodal constrictions

In myelinated axons, most of the voltage-gated ion channels are concentrated at the nodes of Ranvier, which are short gaps in the myelin sheath. This arrangement leads to saltatory conduction and a larger conduction velocity than in nonmyelinated axons. Intriguingly, axons in the peripheral nervous system that exceed about 2 μm in diameter exhibit a characteristic narrowing of the axon at nodes that results in a local reduction of the axonal cross-sectional area. The extent of constriction increases with increasing internodal axonal caliber, reaching a threefold reduction in diameter for the largest axons. In this paper, we use computational modeling to investigate the effect of nodal constrictions on axonal conduction velocity. For a fixed number of ion channels, we find that there is an optimal extent of nodal constriction which minimizes the internodal axon caliber that is required to achieve a given target conduction velocity, and we show that this is sensitive to the precise geometry of the axon and ...