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Some books show the resting potential of neurons as -65mV, such as Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, Fourth Edition (2016, published by Wolters Kluwer).

Graph from page 84, showing the resting potential at -65

However, a majority of internet sites, including Wikipedia, show the resting potential as -70mV.

Which one of these is the correct value, and why is there this small difference?

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  • $\begingroup$ This seems a rather specialized question. Why are you concerned about what you admit is a small difference? Does it have any practical relevence to your work? We would be interested to know. $\endgroup$
    – David
    May 3 '19 at 12:45
  • $\begingroup$ @David I was just reading about the resting potential of the neurons in the book mentioned above.The book uses -65mV in all the pages ,when i checked the internet ,it is -70mV everywhere.So i was curious. $\endgroup$
    – Rahul.In
    May 4 '19 at 14:50
  • $\begingroup$ @David Why are you concerned about what you admit is a small difference? I am new to the field so i was confused. ** Does it have any practical relevence to your work?** No,I am not building anything,just reading only $\endgroup$
    – Rahul.In
    May 4 '19 at 14:52
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Neither is incorrect. Neuronal resting potential is a function of the internal and external concentrations of ions and the conductance of the membrane to those ions via ion channels. Different neurons exhibit a range of resting potentials.

You can calculate the resting potential for a given cell using the Goldman Equation.

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