Voltage clamp of the Aplysia giant neurone: early sodium and calcium currents

1. The membrane properties of the Aplysia giant neurone were studied under controlled voltage conditions. Emphasis was placed on the early transient currents resulting from step polarizations applied while the ganglion was immersed in different test solutions.2. Early inward-going currents were observed when the neurone was bathed in normal saline (containing both Na and Ca), in Ca-free (Na-containing) saline, in Na-free (Ca-containing) saline, and in the normal saline to which tetrodotoxin 10(-5) g/ml. was added. When both Na and Ca are absent from the bathing solution no evidence for early inward-going current could be found.3. When tetrodotoxin is added to the normal saline, the maximum inward-going current is reduced, and no further reduction of this current is observed when the external Na-concentration is subsequently halved in the presence of the drug. When the external Ca-concentration is increased fivefold in the presence of the drug, the maximum transient current increases significantly.4. Hyperpolarizing prepulses result in a membrane inactivation in the presence of tetrodotoxin or in the absence of Na. In the presence of Na (and absence of tetrodotoxin) no such voltage-dependent inactivation occurs, and for this case, inactivation results only from depolarizing prepulses.