Does the sodium-potassium pump power each action potential? · Grey Matter
Only indirectly.
Does the sodium-potassium pump power each action potential?
Only indirectly. The spike runs on gradients that already exist: voltage-gated channels open and sodium and potassium flow down their concentration differences, with no ATP spent during the event itself. The pump works afterwards and continuously, moving three sodium ions out and two potassium ions in per ATP to restore what the spikes let through. One spike changes the concentrations very little, but the brain fires billions of them, and the bill for restoring the gradients after action potentials and synaptic currents is the largest item in its energy budget.