Welcome to the Electrophysiology of the Neuron Home Page!

"Electrophysiology of the Neuron" is an interactive tutorial that comes with a computer disk for simulation of single neurons on a Macintosh or IBM-PC compatible computer. It is available from Oxford University Press ISBN # 0-19-509167-1 (mac) and 0-19- 509111-6 (PC). It is designed to be an adjunct to Neurobiology, 3rd edition by Gordon Shepherd, but can also be used as a stand alone text.

Here you can download complimentary upgrades for Windows and Macintosh versions of the software that comes with the book Electrophysiology of the Neuron.

Please note: These updated versions will only work if you have the previous DOS, Windows, or Macintosh version already loaded on your computer.

Windows versions

These have poweruser options, that allow additional features, such as modifying the display, editing the voltage-dependent models, etc.

A new 32 bit versions available. Click the following link to download the Setup program that will upgrade a current windows version of EOTN to the latest version, one that finally includes support for Windows printers and clipboard!

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How to enable POWERUSER features in Windows:

1. The instructions are briefly indicated in the online help, under Overview.
2. In Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP you need to change the shortcut properties.
3. Right click on the program icon, then select properties
4. Select "shortcut", then "target".
5. Put the word poweruser (after a space) at the end of the line where the VCWIN.exe or CCWIN.EXE is indicated.
6. Click on OK

Macintosh PowerUser version:

You can also download Macintosh PowerUser versions of the two programs.

Please note: These versions will only work if you have the previous version already loaded on your computer.

The download files are in BinHex 4.0 format. To install these programs on your computer:

Super User version of Current Clamp simulation program. HTTP

Super User version of Vurrent Clamp simulation program. HTTP
 
 

Movies of Intracellular Recordings!

The first movie illustrates a neuron similar to that simulated and illustrated in Figure 21 of Electrophysiology of the Neuron. This neuron is a human cortical pyramidal cell maintained in vitro.

The cortical pyramidal cell responds to a current pulse with the generation of a train of action potentials, the frequency of which slows down over time, a process known as spike frequency adaptation.

The second movie is the same neuron after the slow Ca2+-activated K+ current I-AHP is blocked with the local application of serotonin. Now the neuron generates less spike frequency adaptation and a higher frequency of neuronal discharge.
 
 
 
 

Neurons in different parts of the brain generate different patterns of activity. For example, neurons in the Thalamus behave quite distinctly from those in Cerebral Cortex.

As a comparison with the above movies of a cortical pyramidal cell, download and watch this movie of the two states of activity in a Thalamic Relay Neuron (4.4 Megabytes). These two states of activity are similar to those illustrated in Figures 23 and 24 of Electrophysiology of the Neuron.
 
 

New Simulations

Here is a copy of a current clamp demo that illustrates spike frequency accomodation, to show how you can interface CCwin with WWW!
And here is a voltage clamp demo to illustrate that the envelope of tail currents closely follows the envelope of the T current.
 
 

Thank you for visiting the Electrophysiology of the Neuron Web Page!