Announcing Open Access to Electrophysiology of the Neuron
"Electrophysiology
of the Neuron" is an interactive tutorial that comes with a computer disk
for simulation of single neurons on a Macintosh or IBM-PC compatible computer.
It was available from Oxford University Press ISBN #
0-19-509167-1 (mac) and 0-19-
509111-6 (PC), and is now out of print. It was designed to be an adjunct to Neurobiology,
3rd edition by Gordon Shepherd, but can also be used as a stand alone
text.
News, October 31, 2008. We are pleased to announce, that
since the book is no longer in print, we will be distributing an
eVersion of the
book
and the windows and
the Macintosh Classic
(not OS X) versions of the software for free.
If you already have installed the commercial software that came with the book, you can download complimentary upgrades for Windows
and Macintosh versions of the
software that comes with the book Electrophysiology of the Neuron.
Windows versions
Click the following link to download the Setup program that will upgrade a current windows version of EOTN
to the latest version, one that includes support for Windows printers
and clipboard. These have poweruser options, that allow additional features, such as modifying the display, editing
the voltage-dependent models, etc.
Here is a direct link to an
updated poweruser version of ccwin.exe that doesn't require the enable
steps listed below.
To enable poweruser features in Windows:
-
The instructions are briefly indicated in the online help, under Overview.
-
In Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP you need to change the shortcut properties.
-
Right click on the program icon, then select properties
-
Select "shortcut", then "target".
-
Put the word poweruser (after a space) at the end of the line where the
VCWIN.exe or CCWIN.EXE is indicated.
-
Click on OK
Here is a very small python script that will convert the output of
the simulation from a binary file to a text (CSV) file, and here is a file with the column
descriptors in the output file.
NEW! Tested 09/27/2022 JRH.
PlayOnMac v4.4.3
works with the Setup Program to run the
Windows version work on your Mac, via PlayOnMac (via WINE).
If you are having trouble downloading PlayOnMac, here is a local
copy.
Macintosh PowerUser version:
You can also download Macintosh PowerUser versions of the two programs.
Please note: These versions will only work if you have the previous version
already loaded on your computer.
The download files are in BinHex 4.0 format. To install these programs
on your computer:
Download CCLAMP-SU and VCLAMP-SU now:
Super User version of Current Clamp simulation program. HTTP
Super User version of Vurrent Clamp simulation program. HTTP
Movies of Intracellular Recordings!
We have found that it is very useful to see the activity of real neurons
in order to get an intuitive feel for how neurons behave. Therefore, we
have included here some Windows AVI movie files (with sound) that you can
download and watch.
The
first movie illustrates a neuron similar to that simulated and illustrated
in Figure 21 of Electrophysiology of the Neuron. This neuron is a human
cortical pyramidal cell maintained in vitro.
The cortical pyramidal cell responds to a current pulse with the generation
of a train of action potentials, the frequency of which slows down over
time, a process known as spike frequency adaptation.
The second movie is the same neuron after the slow Ca2+-activated K+
current I-AHP is blocked with the local application of serotonin. Now the
neuron generates less spike frequency adaptation and a higher frequency
of neuronal discharge.
Neurons in different parts of the brain generate different patterns
of activity. For example, neurons in the Thalamus behave quite distinctly
from those in Cerebral Cortex.
As
a comparison with the above movies of a cortical pyramidal cell, download
and watch this movie of the two states of activity in a Thalamic
Relay Neuron (4.4 Megabytes). These two states of activity are similar
to those illustrated in Figures 23 and 24 of Electrophysiology of the Neuron.
New Simulations
In this section, we illustrate new simulations that can be run in Windows
versions directly from the WWW.
Just set up your browser so that "*.cc4" files will start up CCwin.exe
as a helper application, and "*.vc4" will start up VCwin.exe.
Here is a copy of a current
clamp demo that illustrates spike frequency accomodation, to show how
you can interface CCwin with WWW!
And here is a voltage
clamp demo to illustrate that the envelope of tail currents closely
follows the envelope of the T current.
News, May 31, 2014. A cross-platform version in
development:
Updated cross-platform EOTN version
from Carlos Manuel Rodriguez
and Michael Markham at University of Oklahoma. Note that this beta
version of the program
has not been fully validated.
Thank you for visiting the Electrophysiology of the Neuron Web Page!
Visitor number 
Comments or Questions:
John Huguenard or David
McCormick
John Huguenard / John.Huguenard@stanford.edu
Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences Stanford University
School of Medicine Stanford, CA 94305-5300
David A. McCormick / David.McCormick@Yale.edu
Section of Neurobiology Yale University School of Medicine 333 Cedar
Street New Haven, CT 06510