What is Actually Happening During a Big Decision

Ethan Cooper

What is Actually Happening During a Big Decision

     The Tennessee Titans are up by 3 points in overtime. The Detroit Lions have a decision to make. It is fourth down and inches and they can do two things: kick a field goal and tie the game up, or potentially go for the win and make a play on fourth down. Coach Jim Schwarz of the Lions stopped for a second and made a decision. Let's look at the science behind the decision in great detail.

     A stimulus changes the permeability of the cell membrane to sodium and potassium ions. This alters the distribution of charge in the cell body, and if this stimulus is big enough, it triggers the action potential that moves down the axon. Voltage gated channels open and close when a neuron stimulus occurs. Sodium Ions will come into the cell making it more positive on the inside. Then they close and voltage gated potassium channels open, allowing potassium ions to come out. This changes the polarity in the membrane. When the sodium was rushing in, depolarization was occurring. When the potassium leaves the cell, the cell is re-polarizing and once it reaches -93mv, it is in a refractory period. What is important to note that this whole process in all or nothing, meaning either the aforementioned idea will all occur at once or it won't occur at all. This process repeats itself as the chemical and electrical process go from one axons to the next. 

     So when Schwarz decided to go for it on fourth down resulting in a Titans win, he essentially created an action potential to stimulate the thought that he was going to go for the win, which ended up not working out.