Electrophysiology: Ion Channels and Recordings

This lecture covers the principles of electrophysiology, focusing on ligand-gated ion channels and their modulation by drug molecules. Techniques such as whole-cell voltage clamp and planar patch electrophysiology chips are explained, along with the equivalent circuits involved. The lecture also discusses automated patch clamp instruments, extracellular recordings, and microelectrode arrays for monitoring neuronal activity. Topics include the compensation of capacitance, noise in recording electrodes, tetrode configurations for single unit recordings, and in-cell recordings by extracellular microelectrodes. Various models and techniques for recording action potentials and analyzing cellular activity are presented.