Neurons Communicate Through Electrical Spikes

What if I told you your child’s brain speaks a language, and the words are electrical spikes? Neurons communicate using rapid changes in membrane voltage. These fast bursts are called action potentials, and action potentials have a nickname, spikes, because when you graph neuron voltage, it literally looks like a spike shooting up. 

Here’s the key: neurons don’t send messages slowly like a written email that comes all at once. They send messages more like Morse code. A spike travels down the axon and signals the next neuron. That’s how the brain passes information.

Looking Beyond Behavior: What’s Happening With Spike Signaling?

As an autism parent, if your child’s brain struggles with regulation, language, attention, or transitions, we shouldn’t only ask what behavior do we see?

We should also ask what’s happening with spike signaling.

Are spikes firing too easily? Not easily enough? Not consistently?

Because this spike language is the foundation of the entire nervous system.

Action Potentials and Voltage-Gated Channels

If you think neurons are simple on-off switches, this is going to change the way you see your child’s brain.

Action potentials, those electrical spikes, are created by voltage-gated channels. But here’s the twist: these channels are not clean little light switches. Biology is messier than that.

Instead of “on at this voltage,” it’s more like, “At this voltage, there’s a chance the channel opens.” So voltage changes the probability of opening.

Some neurons are like, “Sure, open the gates, open the gates!” And others are like, “Mm.” Maybe that matters.

Kinetics: The Timing of Channel Behavior

Then there’s kinetics, which is timing. How fast channels open, how long they stay open, and how quickly they close. Action potentials don’t just depend on voltage; they depend on probability and timing.

So if your child’s nervous system feels unpredictable, it might not be random. It might be a different probability and timing setting at the voltage-gated channel level.

That’s why strategy beats guessing.

Electrolytes, Hydration, and Electrical Signaling

If your child is dehydrated or low in electrolytes, their brain signaling can literally slow down. Not emotionally, electrically.

Here’s why. Action potential brain spikes don’t happen by magic. They happen because ions move. Sodium goes in first, then potassium goes out. That timing is everything. During a spike, sodium channels open up first. Sodium rushes in, the voltage shoots up.

Then potassium channels open later, potassium leaves, voltage comes back down. That’s called kinetics. The timing of channel opening and closing.

Sodium Channels and Their Two Gates

Sodium channels are even more precise. They have two gates. An activation gate that opens fast and an inactivation gate that closes shortly after. So the neuron gets a clean, sharp spike, not chaos.

If you’re an autism parent, here’s some insight. 

If you don’t have enough sodium, potassium, magnesium, or calcium, or if hydration is off, you’re literally missing the raw materials that these channels rely on. Electrolytes aren’t extra; they’re ions that make electrical signaling possible.

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) and Proof That Sensory Experience Is Electrical

Want proof that sensory experience is electrical, not in your head?

Here’s a toxin that literally can turn sensation off.

It’s called tetrodotoxin, found in pufferfish, abbreviated TTX. In some places, it’s a delicacy because tiny amounts can cause numb lips. That numbness isn’t magic, it’s neuroscience.

TTX blocks voltage-gated sodium channels, and sodium channels are what let sensory neurons create those fast electrical spikes, the action potentials.

What happens when this toxin blocks those channels?

No sodium spikes, no action potentials. Sensory neurons can’t signal, so you may feel numb. That’s how scientists proved sodium channels are essential for nerve signaling.

Sensory Experience, Ion Channels, and the Nervous System

As an autism parent, let’s think about sensory experience—touch, sound, light, texture—depends on how these channels behave. So if sodium channels or other ion channels are more sensitive or fire too easily or reset too slowly, your child may not be dramatic. They may be experiencing the world with a nervous system that’s literally turning signals up or down at the channel level.

This is why sensory support isn’t about toughening up.

It’s about understanding your child’s nervous system.

Confused by all the information about autism? I’ve got you. Click the link to see how we can work together. Let me break down the science and provide you with clear, actionable steps to make your path forward easier