scholarly journals TRANSVERSE IMPEDANCE OF THE SQUID GIANT AXON DURING CURRENT FLOW

1941 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Cole ◽  
Richard F. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Current Flow ◽  
Membrane Conductance ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Impedance Change ◽  
Electrical Characteristics ◽  
Ion Permeability ◽  
Membrane Capacity ◽  
Maximum Value ◽  
Capacity Change

The change in the transverse impedance of the squid giant axon caused by direct current flow has been measured at frequencies from 1 kc. per second to 500 kc. per second. The impedance change is equivalent to an increase of membrane conductance at the cathode to a maximum value approximately the same as that obtained during activity and a decrease at the anode to a minimum not far from zero. There is no evidence of appreciable membrane capacity change in either case. It then follows that the membrane has the electrical characteristics of a rectifier. Interpreting the membrane conductance as a measure of ion permeability, this permeability is increased at the cathode and decreased at the anode.

scholarly journals The Effects of Several Alcohols on the Properties of the Squid Giant Axon

1964 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clay M. Armstrong ◽  
Leonard Binstock
Keyword(s):  
Potassium Conductance ◽  
Membrane Conductance ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Sodium Ion ◽  
Ion Current ◽  
Resting Potential ◽  
Membrane Capacity ◽  
Monomolecular Films ◽  
Steady State Inactivation

The effects of several alcohols on the resting potential, action potential, and voltage-clamp currents of the squid giant axon have been measured. All the alcohols employed are similar in that they depress maximum sodium conductance much more than maximum potassium conductance. Octyl alcohol differs from the others (C2 through C5) in that it has less tendency to depolarize the axon. Depolarization is always accompanied by a decrease of gK near the resting potential, such that the ratio gK/gleak is decreased. Steady-state inactivation of the sodium ion current is unaffected by alcohols, as is membrane capacity. Resting membrane conductance is usually decreased by alcohols. The findings are discussed in relation to work on monomolecular films.

scholarly journals MEMBRANE POTENTIAL OF THE SQUID GIANT AXON DURING CURRENT FLOW

1941 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Cole ◽  
Howard J. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Potential ◽  
Membrane Conductance ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Membrane Resistance ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Ion Permeability ◽  
Absolute Value ◽  
Initial Transient ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Fine Capillary

The squid giant axon was placed in a shallow narrow trough and current was sent in at two electrodes in opposite sides of the trough and out at a third electrode several centimeters away. The potential difference across the membrane was measured between an inside fine capillary electrode with its tip in the axoplasm between the pair of polarizing electrodes, and an outside capillary electrode with its tip flush with the surface of one polarizing electrode. The initial transient was roughly exponential at the anode make and damped oscillatory at the sub-threshold cathode make with the action potential arising from the first maximum when threshold was reached. The constant change of membrane potential, after the initial transient, was measured as a function of the total polarizing current and from these data the membrane potential is obtained as a function of the membrane current density. The absolute value of the resting membrane resistance approached at low polarizing currents is about 23 ohm cm.2. This low value is considered to be a result of the puncture of the axon. The membrane was found to be an excellent rectifier with a ratio of about one hundred between the high resistance at the anode and the low resistance at the cathode for the current range investigated. On the assumption that the membrane conductance is a measure of its ion permeability, these experiments show an increase of ion permeability under a cathode and a decrease under an anode.

scholarly journals DEMONSTRATION OF TWO STABLE POTENTIAL STATES IN THE SQUID GIANT AXON UNDER TETRAETHYLAMMONIUM CHLORIDE

1957 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 859-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ichiji Tasaki ◽  
Susumu Hagiwara
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Potential ◽  
Action Potential ◽  
Membrane Conductance ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Membrane Resistance ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Resting Potential ◽  
Unstable State ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Tetraethylammonium Chloride

1. Intracellular injection of tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA) into a giant axon of the squid prolongs the duration of the action potential without changing the resting potential (Fig. 3). The prolongation is sometimes 100-fold or more. 2. The action potential of a giant axon treated with TEA has an initial peak followed by a plateau (Fig. 3). The membrane resistance during the plateau is practically normal (Fig. 4). Near the end of the action potential, there is an apparent increase in the membrane resistance (Fig. 5D and Fig. 6, right). 3. The phenomenon of abolition of action potentials was demonstrated in the squid giant axon treated with TEA (Fig. 7). Following an action potential abolished in its early phase, there is no refractoriness (Fig. 8). 4. By the method of voltage clamp, the voltage-current relation was investigated on normal squid axons as well as on axons treated with TEA (Figs. 9 and 10). 5. The presence of stable states of the membrane was demonstrated by clamping the membrane potential with two voltage steps (Fig. 11). Experimental evidence was presented showing that, in an "unstable" state, the membrane conductance is not uniquely determined by the membrane potential. 6. The effect of low sodium water was investigated in the axon treated with TEA (Fig. 12). 7. The similarity between the action potential of a squid axon under TEA and that of the vertebrate cardiac muscle was stressed. The experimental results were interpreted as supporting the view that there are two stable states in the membrane. Initiation and abolition of an action potential were explained as transitions between the two states.

scholarly journals RECTIFICATION AND INDUCTANCE IN THE SQUID GIANT AXON

1941 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Cole
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Potential ◽  
Electrical Properties ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Constant Current ◽  
Ion Permeability ◽  
Squid Axon ◽  
Axon Membrane ◽  
Piezoelectric Structure ◽  
In Series

Previous measurements have shown that the electrical properties of the squid axon membrane are approximately equivalent to those of a circuit containing a capacity shunted by an inductance and a rectifier in series. Selective ion permeability of a membrane separating two electrolytes may be expected to give rise to the rectification. A quasi-crystalline piezoelectric structure of the membrane is a plausible explanation of the inductance. Some approximate calculations of behavior of an axon with these membrane characteristics have been made. Fair agreement is obtained with the observed constant current subthreshold potential and impedance during the foot of the action potential. In a simple case a formal analogy is found between the calculated membrane potential and the excitability defined by the two factor formulations of excitation. Several excitation phenomena may then be explained semi-quantitatively by further assuming the excitability proportional to the membrane potential. Some previous measurements and subthreshold potential and excitability observations are not consistent with the circuit considered and indicate that this circuit is only approximately equivalent to the membrane.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF SODIUM AND POTASSIUM IONS ON THE IMPEDANCE CHANGE ACCOMPANYING THE SPIKE IN THE SQUID GIANT AXON

1953 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Grundfest ◽  
Abraham M. Shanes ◽  
Walter Freygang
Keyword(s):  
Voltage Clamp ◽  
Potassium Level ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Sodium Concentration ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Potassium Ions ◽  
Impedance Change ◽  
Voltage Clamp Technique ◽  
Sodium And Potassium ◽  
Identical Fashion

Decrease of the sodium concentration of the medium depresses both the spike and the associated impedance change in almost identical fashion. Elevation of the potassium level also depresses both phenomena, but affects the impedance change more than the spike; it slows the return to the initial impedance level. The effects on the threshold to brief square waves are also described. These results appear largely accounted for by the observations of Hodgkin and Huxley with the voltage clamp technique and by their recent hypothesis as to nature of the spike processes.

scholarly journals THE EFFECTS OF HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE UPON THE NORMAL AND NARCOTIZED NERVE FIBER

1957 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 849-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantine S. Spyropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Nerve Fiber ◽  
Low Temperatures ◽  
High Pressures ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Membrane Resistance ◽  
Resting Potential ◽  
Impedance Change ◽  
Membrane Capacity ◽  
Membrane Impedance

The properties of the giant axon of the squid Loligo pealii were studied at different hydrostatic pressures from 14.7 to 16,000 psi. At 4000 psi the resting potential, the membrane resistance, membrane capacity, the conduction velocity, the amplitude of the action potential, and the maximal change in the membrane impedance during activity were only slightly affected. At the same pressure the duration of the falling phase of the action potential was increased by about 40 to 60 per cent and the duration of the rising phase by about 20 to 35 per cent. The duration of the membrane impedance change during activity was increased by 50 to 100 per cent at 4000 psi. At pressures even slightly above atmospheric the threshold membrane current was appreciably reduced. At about 3000 to 7000 psi the fiber fired spontaneously. At pressures considerably above 5000 psi the membrane resistance decreased to about one-half to one-third the original value. The narcotizing effect upon the nerve fiber of 3 to 7 per cent ethanol was partly or almost completely opposed by low temperatures or high pressures.

scholarly journals ANESTHETIC AND CALCIUM ACTION IN THE VOLTAGE CLAMPED SQUID GIANT AXON

1959 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 793-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Shanes ◽  
W. H. Freygang ◽  
H. Grundfest ◽  
E. Amatniek
Keyword(s):  
Local Anesthetics ◽  
Membrane Conductance ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Potassium Ions ◽  
Outward Currents ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Sodium And Potassium

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.

scholarly journals THE PARALLELISM BETWEEN THE ACTION POTENTIAL, ACTION CURRENT, AND MEMBRANE RESISTANCE AT A NODE OF RANVIER

1955 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Tasaki ◽  
W. H. Freygang
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Node Of Ranvier ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Membrane Resistance ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
Impedance Change ◽  
Action Current ◽  
Single Node ◽  
Resistance Change ◽  
Simultaneous Measurements

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.

Neurofilaments and Paired Helical Filaments

1985 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 740-743
Author(s):  
J. Metuzals
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Posttranslational Modifications ◽  
Posttranslational Modification ◽  
Giant Axon ◽  
Paired Helical Filaments ◽  
Squid Giant Axon ◽  
In Vitro Experiments ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Structural Relationships

It has been demonstrated that the neurofibrillary tangles in biopsies of Alzheimer patients, composed of typical paired helical filaments (PHF), consist also of typical neurofilaments (NF) and 15nm wide filaments. Close structural relationships, and even continuity between NF and PHF, have been observed. In this paper, such relationships are investigated from the standpoint that the PHF are formed through posttranslational modifications of NF. To investigate the validity of the posttranslational modification hypothesis of PHF formation, we have identified in thin sections from frontal lobe biopsies of Alzheimer patients all existing conformations of NF and PHF and ordered these conformations in a hypothetical sequence. However, only experiments with animal model preparations will prove or disprove the validity of the interpretations of static structural observations made on patients. For this purpose, the results of in vitro experiments with the squid giant axon preparations are compared with those obtained from human patients. This approach is essential in discovering etiological factors of Alzheimer's disease and its early diagnosis.

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