Practice question · True or false
Doubling the intensity of a stimulus (with both levels above threshold) roughly doubles the SIZE of each resulting action potential.
Hints
- Recall what the all-or-none principle fixes once threshold is crossed.
- A stronger stimulus changes firing FREQUENCY, not spike amplitude.
Show the answer
False
Why
False. By the all-or-none principle, every action potential in a neuron is the same size; a stronger stimulus increases the RATE of firing, not the height of each spike. Amplitude coding of intensity is the named misconception.
Practise The Neuron and Action Potentials
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on The Neuron and Action Potentials
- Order the path a signal travels through a single neuron.
- Neurons cannot fire faster than roughly 500–1000 times a second, however intense the stimulus. What sets that…
- Sort each statement by whether it describes the neuron at rest or during the action potential.
- Select every statement that is TRUE about neurons and action potentials.
- Action potentials are all-or-none, so every spike is the same size. How does the nervous system represent the…