Editing Saltatory conduction (section)

==Mechanism==
Myelinated axons only allow action potentials to occur at the unmyelinated nodes of Ranvier that occur between the myelinated internodes. It is by this restriction that saltatory conduction propagates an action potential along the axon of a [[neuron]] at rates significantly higher than would be possible in unmyelinated axons (150&nbsp;m/s compared from 0.5 to 10&nbsp;m/s).<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Purves D, Augustine GJ, Fitzpatrick D | chapter = Increased Conduction Velocity as a Result of Myelination | chapter-url = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10921/ | title = Neuroscience | edition = 2nd | location = Sunderland (MA) | publisher = Sinauer Associates | year = 2001 }}</ref> As sodium rushes into the node it creates an electrical force which pushes on the ions already inside the axon. This rapid conduction of electrical signal reaches the next node and creates another action potential, thus refreshing the signal. In this way, electrical nerve signals can propagate rapidly, over long distances, without degradation.{{Cn|date=January 2025}} Although the action potential appears to jump along the axon, this phenomenon is actually just the rapid conduction of the signal inside the myelinated portion of the axon.
If the entire surface of an axon were insulated, action potentials could not be regenerated along the axon resulting in signal degradation.{{cn|date=May 2024}} In the [[Central nervous system|CNS]], nerve cells have been shown to individually alter the size of the nodes to tune conduction speeds.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Arancibia-Cárcamo | first=I Lorena | last2=Ford | first2=Marc C | last3=Cossell | first3=Lee | last4=Ishida | first4=Kinji | last5=Tohyama | first5=Koujiro | last6=Attwell | first6=David | title=Node of Ranvier length as a potential regulator of myelinated axon conduction speed | journal=eLife | volume=6 | date=2017-01-28 | issn=2050-084X | pmid=28130923 | pmc=5313058 | doi=10.7554/eLife.23329 | doi-access=free }}</ref>