What happens if nerve impulses go the wrong way?
The propagation of the action potential is MUCH slower than the refractory period. The propagation speed is determined by the cable equation http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~bard/passive2/node9.html which is a formalism developed by Hodgkin &amp; Huxley in the 1930s to measure signal transmission through a biological cable (e.g. an axon). The speed of the propagation is measured by a constant. The voltage does decay and thus spread in all directions, but the propagation only matters towards the direction of signal transmission. Ionic action in the soma would destroy the usefulness of transmission not down the axon. With that being said, neurites in arthropod nervous systems for instance http://stg.rutgers.edu/ can receive input and deliver output leading to very complicated patterns of waves inwards and outwards. Despite this, the stomatogastric ganglion can produce very robust and stable rhythmic neural patterns.