WinLTP is a data acquisition program for studying long-term potentiation (LTP) and other aspects of synaptic function. Earlier versions of WinLTP (J. Neurosci. Methods, 162:346-356, 2007) provided automated electrical stimulation and data acquisition capable of running nearly an entire synaptic plasticity experiment, with the primary exception that perfusion solutions had to be changed manually...

Patch clamp method developed more than 30 years ago is widely used for investigation of cellular excitability manifested as transmembrane ionic current and/or generation of action potentials. This technique could be applied to measurement of ionic currents flowing through individual (single) ion channels or through the whole assembly of ion channels expressed in the whole cell. Whole cell confi...

The visual selection of specific cells within an ex vivo brain slice, combined with whole-cell patch clamp recording and capillary electrophoresis (CE)-mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics, yields high chemical information on the selected cells. By providing access to a cell's intracellular environment, the whole-cell patch clamp technique allows one to record the cell's physiological acti...

Introduction: In a serious brain disorder like Alzheimer's disease, the levels of acetylcholine (Ach) drop significantly. The gradual death of cholinergic brain cells leads to a profound loss of memory and learning ability. Acetylcholine is the chemical messenger that sends messages from one neuron to another in the area of the brain used for memory. Many of the current medications act to enhan...