Analysis of a model of membrane potential for a skin receptor (Q1307680)

The Pacinian corpuscle (PC) is a nerve ending surrounded by a capsule constructed of elastic shell layers separated by fluid layers and is a skin mechanoreceptor which receives mechanical stimuli and transforms them into neural responses. This paper deals with a linear model of the PC. The model consists of a linear parabolic equation on an interval \((0,l)\) coupled with an initial value ODE problem. The boundary condition at 0 is of type one, while at \(l\) it invoves both time and space derivatives and is referred to by the authors as an oblique boundary condition. Further, the authors study the existence and uniqueness of the solution of this system using Green's function. The existence and representation of the stationary solutions is also studied. Numerical solutions complete the paper. The relevance of the linear model versus a nonlinear one is discussed in the concluding section.