Neurophysiology Flashcards
What did Galvani find with his frog leg experiment?
Movement is powered by electricity
What is the utility of electrophysiology in measuring the activity of the brain?
Real time, high fidelity, high temporal resolution
What levels of scale can electrophysiology measure brain activity on?
Single channels (intracellular recording) to large populations is neurons/synapses (extracellular recording) to whole brain areas (EEG)
Who pioneered EEG?
Hans Berger
In what direction does electrical signalling travel from neuron to neuron?
Dendrite to cell body to axon to synapse to dendrire
What is electrophysiology as a tool?
A real time high fidelity high temporal resolution approach to measure electrical signals in the brain
What are the two major types of electrical event in neurons?
Action potentials
Synaptic potentials
How can single cell activity be recorded?
Intracellularly
Extracellularly
Which is the only part of a neuron that exhibits true action potentials and why?
Axon
Only arts with high density of voltage gated sodium channels
What does the sodium potsssium pump do?
Maintains polarisation across the membrane
Pumps 2K+ in and 3Na+ out (net -1)
What is the sharp electrode method?
An electrode made from a glass tip is filled with conducting solution and placed inside the axon
Difference is measured against a reference electrode outside the axon
What is the resting membrane potential?
-65mV
What does atropine inhibit?
Muscarinic receptors
What does curate inhibit?
Nicotinic receptors
What is the potential at hyperpolarisarion?
-90mV
