During an action potential, neither excitability or
conduction can occur, resulting in an absolute refractory
period.
• For the next few milliseconds following and action
potential, it will take a much larger stimulus to initiate an
action potential, resulting in a partial refractory period.
• The length of the refractory periods depends upon the
size of the neuron; the largest neurons can have
refractory periods as short as 1 millisecond, resulting in
maximum signal frequencies of 1000 Hz.