In the electromechanical theory of nerve stimulation, the nerve impulse
consists of a traveling region of solid membrane in a liquid environment.
Therefore, the free energy necessary to stimulate a pulse is directly related
to the free energy difference necessary to induce a phase transition in the
nerve membrane. It is a function of temperature and pressure, and it is
sensitively dependent on the presence of anesthetics which lower melting
transitions. We investigate the free energy difference of solid and liquid
membrane phases under the influence of anesthetics. We calculate
stimulus-response curves of electromechanical pulses and compare them to
measured stimulus-response profiles in lobster and earthworm axons. We also
compare them to stimulus-response experiments on human median nerve and frog
sciatic nerve published in the literature.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
