Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each conduction strategy to its consequence.
- Increasing axon diameter
- Myelination
- Nodes of Ranvier
- Loss of myelin
- Faster, but scales very poorly with size
- Far faster in a much thinner fibre
- Conduction slows or fails, as in multiple sclerosis
- Gaps where the signal is regenerated
Hints
- Two strategies achieve speed; one structure enables the better of them.
- One entry shows what happens when the better strategy fails.
Show the answer
- Increasing axon diameter → Faster, but scales very poorly with size
- Myelination → Far faster in a much thinner fibre
- Nodes of Ranvier → Gaps where the signal is regenerated
- Loss of myelin → Conduction slows or fails, as in multiple sclerosis
Why
Diameter and myelination are the two available routes to speed, and myelination is enormously more efficient. Multiple sclerosis demonstrates the dependence directly: the axon is intact, but without its sheath the signal cannot travel properly.
Practise Muscle and Nervous Tissue
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