电活性电池的表征,比如神经元,要求测量其电性能。由于基因激活的差异,location,神经支配模式,和功能,哺乳动物大脑中的数百万个神经元在它们的膜特征和产生动作电位的能力方面是非常不同的。可以在全细胞电流钳配置中使用膜片钳技术测量这些特征,然后对发射模式进行详细的事后分析。这种分析可能很耗时,不同的实验室有自己的方法来执行它,手动或使用自定义编写的脚本。这里,我们以腹侧被盖区(VTA)神经元为例,详细描述了一种放电模式配准协议,并介绍了一种快速方便的分析软件。在这篇文章的帮助下,其他研究小组可以轻松地应用这种方法,并生成统一类型的数据,这些数据在大脑区域和各种研究之间具有可比性。图形摘要:协议的工作流程。
Characterization of an electrically active cell, such as a neuron, demands measurement of its electrical properties. Due to differences in gene activation, location, innervation patterns, and functions, the millions of neurons in the mammalian brain are tremendously diverse in their membrane characteristics and abilities to generate action potentials. These features can be measured with a patch-clamp technique in whole-cell current-clamp configuration followed by detailed post-hoc analysis of firing patterns. This analysis can be time-consuming, and different laboratories have their own methods to perform it, either manually or with custom-written scripts. Here, we describe in detail a protocol for firing-pattern registration in neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) as an example and introduce a software for its fast and convenient analysis. With the help of this article, other research groups can easily apply this method and generate unified types of data that are comparable between brain regions and various studies. Graphic abstract: Workflow of the Protocol.