CIRCUIT FOR ESTIMATING THE ELECTRICAL WAVEFORM ACROSS SOMATIC MEMBRANE OF NERVE CELLS FROM EXTRACELLULAR RECORDINGS.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W H FREYGANG.
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Intracellular recordings of the negative after-potential that follows a train of impulses in frog muscle are described. It is postulated that the cause of this after-potential is an accumulation of potassium, during the train, in an intermediary space that is located between the major portion of the sarcoplasm and the external fluid. The decline of the after-potential is then produced by the exchange of potassium from the intermediary space with sodium from the external fluid.
This is an investigation of the effects on the late after-potential of immersing frog sartorius muscles in three kinds of modified Ringer's fluid; hypertonic, low chloride, and potassium-free. The late after-potential has been attributed to the depolarizing effect of an accumulation of potassium, during a preceding train of impulses, in the intermediary space of the model of a muscle fiber proposed by Adrian and Freygang. Both the hypertonic and low chloride solutions prolonged the late after-potential reversibly and the potassium-free solution shortened it. The effect of the low potassium solution fitted those data calculated from the model, but the effect of the hypertonic and low chloride solutions required an increase in size of the intermediary space of the model in order to fit the calculated data. An electron microscopic study of the muscles showed that the size of the transverse tubular system changed reversibly in the hypertonic and low chloride solutions in almost the amount necessary to fit the experimental data to the calculated data. This agreement between the change in size of the transverse tubular system and that of the intermediary space indicates that the intermediary space may be the transverse tubular system.
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Extracellular action potentials found close to the surface of motoneurons are related to the intracellular spikes. Evidence is cited to support the assumption that the extracellular spikes have the same time course as the membrane current at the site of recording. Simultaneously recorded intracellular and extracellular spikes are compared. Intracellular spikes are transformed, by means of a circuit which is equivalent to the extracellular recording situation, into transients that are like those appearing extracellularly. Evidence is given that the recordings are from the cell bodies of motoneurons. The results show that the membrane at the extracellular recording site does not produce a spike since the time course of the extracellular potentials is determined by the passive properties of the membrane.
Changes in spike configuration and in the inward and outward currents of voltage-clamped axons agree in indicating that the increases in permeability to sodium and potassium ions during activity are depressed by procaine and cocaine and augmented by calcium. At low levels of depolarization, the effect of the multivalent ion is similar to that of the local anesthetics, in keeping with their similar effects on the threshold of excitability. The reduction of membrane conductance at rest requires a higher concentration of the drugs than that needed to affect the increase in permeability with activity.
The lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat was explored with micropipettes having submicroscopic tips. The only reliably recorded intracellular activity was from axons. Following orthodromic stimulation, the potentials recorded by the extracellular electrodes registered the net flow of current across the soma-dendritic membrane of the principal cell bodies. The current has three phases of flow away from the soma-dendritic membrane followed by a flow of current toward this membrane. The first component is ascribed to synaptic activity. Subsequent components are ascribed to the activity of the initial segment of the axon and a limited area of high threshold membrane on the soma. The evidence is interpreted as suggesting that most of the soma-dendritic membrane is excited synaptically to produce a postsynaptic potential, but is not excited electrically and does not produce a propagating spike.
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1. Simultaneous measurements of action potential and resistance and of action current and impedance change have been made at a single node of Ranvier. 2. There is a parallelism between action potential, action current, and resistance change measured at a node of Ranvier. 3. Some implications of these results have been discussed in relation to the corresponding data obtained from the squid giant axon.
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