Readmitting potassium to potassium-deprived mouse liver segments during intracellular microelectrode recording caused an increase in membrane potential and a gradual reduction in amplitude of electrotonic potentials set up by current pulses applied to another liver cell some distance away. Readmitting K in a high concentration (100 m.M) caused a transient hyperpolarization followed by depolariz...

Neurons in hippocampal and striatal cell cultures respond to adenosine with an inhibitory potassium current. This response disappears during whole-cell patch-clamp recording in which the cell is filled with minimal saline. We have found that this loss of sensitivity to adenosine can be prevented by including 100 microM GTP in the patch electrode filling solution. GDP is less effective than GTP ...

In animals, odor qualities are represented as both spatial activity patterns of glomeruli and temporal patterns of synchronized oscillatory signals in the primary olfactory centers. By optical imaging of a voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) and intracellular recording from secondary olfactory interneurons, we examined possible neural correlates of the spatial and temporal odor representations in the p...

Using cultured Aplysia neurons we recently reported on the development of a novel approach in which an extracellular, non-invasive multi-electrode-array system provides multisite, attenuated, intracellular recordings of subthreshold synaptic potentials, and action potentials (APs), the so called "IN-CELL" recording configuration (to differentiate it from intracellular recordings). Because of it...

The combination of intracellular recording and marking of neurons with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) has greatly extended the understanding of neuronal circuits. This approach is suitable for the reconstruction of the axonal and dendritic arborizations of neurons over several millimeters, thus providing a more complete picture of individual cells than was possible with previous methods. In addit...

Slice preparations are typically used to study the effects of pharmacological manipulations on the electrophysiological activity of mature neurons. However, the severing of afferent inputs is known to significantly change the natural membrane activity of the neuron. To study the effects of local pharmacological manipulations on neurons in the intact brain, we combined the methods of microdialys...

The present study was performed to investigate the effects of depleting intracellular Ca(2+) stores on bicuculline- or gabazine-induced epileptiform excitability. Studies were performed on monolayer rat hippocampal neuronal networks utilising a system that allowed simultaneous multiple extracellular single-unit recordings of neuronal activity. Hippocampal neuronal networks were prepared from en...

Most of this book deals with electrical recording techniques which, although powerful, cannot always be used to study the composition of the intracellular environment particularly when small cells or populations of cells are the preparation of interest. Optical techniques are becoming an increasingly attractive alternative method because of their apparent non-invasive nature and ease of use. On...