Introduction to Electrophysiological Methods and Instrumentation

Book excerpt: Introduction to Electrophysiological Methods and Instrumentation, Second Edition covers all topics of interest to electrophysiologists, neuroscientists and neurophysiologists, from the reliable penetration of cells and the behavior and function of the equipment, to the mathematical tools available for analyzing data. It discusses the pros and cons of techniques and methods used in electrophysiology and how to avoid pitfalls. Although the basics of electrophysiological techniques remain the principal purpose of this second edition, it now integrates several current developments, including, amongst others, automated recording for high throughput screening and multimodal recordings to correlate electrical activity with other physiological parameters collected by optical means. This book provides the electrophysiologist with the tools needed to understand his or her equipment and how to acquire and analyze low-voltage biological signals. - Introduces possibilities and solutions, along with the problems, pitfalls, and artefacts of equipment and electrodes - Discusses the particulars of recording from brain tissue slices, oocytes and planar bilayers - Describes optical methods pertinent to electrophysiological practice - Presents the fundamentals of signal processing of analogue signals, spike trains and single channel recordings, along with procedures for signal recording and processing - Includes appendices on electrical safety and foundations of useful mathematical tools