That nerve impulses rely on chemical processes rather than electron flow can be deduced based on what happens when a nerve no longer receives chemical energy in the form of oxygen and glucose. Compression of the blood vessels that feed directly into nerves, the vasa nervorum, stops both afferent and efferent signals through the nerve, causing numbness or “parasthesia”. Myelin has been assumed to insulate neurons in the way plastic rubber insulates a copper wire, but if nerve signals are chemical, not electrical in the sense that a copper wire is, why would they need insulation? The insulator theory has been supported by the high lipid content of myelin, causing the myelin-rich white matter of the brain to appear white, similar to adipose tissue, but could there be another explanation to the high lipid content? The lipids could be just chemical fuel for nerve impulses. The extreme thinness of the myelin protoplasm might benefit structurally from high lipid content, maintaining integrity that way. It could also be that the lipid-protein ratio is high not because the lipid content is high but because the protein content is low.
If nerve impulses propagate chemically, not by electrons, therefore not benefitting from any insulation, what is the myelin for? The activation of the protoplasm in the myelin sheaths can benefit from the increased exchange surface for electrolytes, increasing the rate of propagation of the activation wave. The major benefit to nerve impulse propagation speed is the extreme thinness of the sheaths, roughly 1/20th of the axon. The activation wave (conformational changes within the protein matrix of the myelin lamina) passes over the Node of Ranvier via the paranodal junctions, and then enters the next paranodal channels (myelin lamina. )
Measurements of a hypothetical depolarization wave across the myelin laminae is difficult to measure using microelectrodes given the extreme thinness of the laminae. Potassium/sodium exchange during the activation wave, is also difficult to measure, since the lamina are so tightly packed, the extra-cellular space between each lamina is even thinner than the lamina themselves. The bulk-phase theory of cell physiology suggests that since oligodendrocytes and schwann cells rely on the same principles of cell physiology as all other life, they would be adsorbing potassium as a resting state, and be capable of activation by switching affinity to sodium as the state regulator ATP is withdrawn by hydrolysis.
# Morphic resonance between lamina
The conduction speed is increased 20-fold in myelinated axons. The activation of one laminae, by hydrolysis of the state "switch" ATP, and shift of proteinaceous protoplasm affinity for sodium over potassium, might induce, through morphogenetic field, favourable conditions for activation of adjacent laminae, increasing the speed of the nerve impulse wave over the myelinated segment by more than what would be expected from just the increased exchange area (surface area. )
# Electron model
The alternative model is electron flow *between* the sheaths, in the extracellular space that forms between the myelin laminae. This space would be packed with hydronium ions, from the polarized water gel at the surface of the laminae, and would be highly conductive. To explain parasthesia, the electron flow across the myelin cell would not be sufficient for two segments, discharge would be required at the internodal region, the Node of Ranvier. This model explains the 20x faster rate of propagation of nerve impulses in myelinated axons.