The voltage clamp is an experimental method used by electrophysiologists to measure the ion currents through the membranes of excitable cells, such as neurons, while holding the membrane voltage at a
A personal photo of Kenneth Cole, given to Dr. J. Walter Woodbury
Two-electrode voltage clamp
An action potential is a series of quick changes in voltage across a cell membrane. An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell rapidly rises and falls. This "depolarizat
Voltage clamp
…experiments with the voltage clamp, Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley published 5 papers in the summer of 1952 describing how ionic currents give rise to the action potential. The final paper proposed the Hodgkin–Huxley model which mathematically describes the action potential. The use of voltage clamps in their experiments…
In saltatory conduction, an action potential at one node of Ranvier causes inwards currents that depolarize the membrane at the next node, provoking a new action potential there; the action potential appears to "hop" from node to node.
Giant axons of the longfin inshore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) were crucial for scientists to understand the action potential.
Tetrodotoxin is a lethal toxin found in pufferfish that inhibits the voltage-sensitive sodium channel, halting action potentials.
Image of two Purkinje cells (labeled as A) drawn by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in 1899. Large trees of dendrites feed into the soma, from which a single axon emerges and moves generally downwards with a few branch points. The smaller cells labeled B are granule cells.