Introduction to Neuroscience 1 (COGS1000)

Neural Signalling Lab 2

Activity Sheet
PART I: Action potential threshold
Remember that if the membrane potential is depolarized beyond a certain point, known
as threshold, the neuron will generate an action potential. Therefore, if you inject a large
amount of current into the neuron, the membrane potential will depolarize faster and the
the probability that the neuron fires an action potential increases. With a smaller current,
by contrast, the membrane potential will take longer to reach threshold, or might not even
reach it at all. In this part of the lab, we will examine the relationship between membrane
depolarization and threshold.

1. Describe the four different phases of the action potential and the order in which they
occur.
Rising Phase: Membrane potential rapidly depolarizes
Overshoot Phase: Becomes positive for a short period
Falling Phase: Membrane potential rapidly repolarizes
Undershoot Phase: Hyperpolarisation for a short period
2. If you click and drag on the yellow graph in MetaNeuron Lesson 4 you will see a
measurement cursor. Use this cursor to measure the membrane potential (in millivolts,
mV) and the time (in milliseconds, ms) for the inflection point of the rising phase,
maximum value (or peak) of the overshoot phase, and minimum value of the
undershoot. Write these down in the following table:

Membrane potential (mV) Time (ms)

Inflection point 45.34 1.54

Peak 34.46 1.56

Undershoot 75.62 2.94

3. What happens when increasing amounts of current are injected into the neuron. Find
the window that says "Stimulus 1" and set the value of Amplitude to 25 and press enter
(note the units are in micro amperes or µA, which are the units for electrical current).
This reduces the amount current that you are injecting into your cell. You can see the
reduction in current injected because the blip in the red line (the square wave indicating
the current pulse) gets smaller.
a. What happens to the action potential?
Action Potential is not generated.
b. Why
rising do youovershoot
phase, think this happens?
phaae, something phase, something pah
The amplitude value was very less. Thus there was not enough current to reach the threshold and
c. Now
causeincrease
action potential.
the amplitude of "Stimulus 1" to 45, 55, 65, 75, 100 and 200. For each
value, note what happens to the action potential.
For,
45 - no Action Potential
55 - no Action Potential
d. Why do you
65 - there was think
Action this happens?
Potential
75 - there was Action Potential
When there is more current, the depolarization becomes faster. Thus the current reaches the
e. What
100 - thereand
was Action Potential
is the minimum
threshold cause amount
Action of current you need to inject into your cell to trigger an
Potential.
200 - there was Action Potential
action potential?
The minimum amount of current needed to inject into the cell is 61.
4. Set the stimulus amplitude to 200 and perform the same set of measurements you did
earlier, and enter these in the following table:
Membrane potential (mV) Time (ms)

Inflection point -42.46 0.66

Peak 40.00 0.85

Undershoot -75.21 2.28

How do the new values compare to the old values? What changed?
The value of amplitude is higher than the old values which results the Action Potential to occur
faster and the peek value is higher.

PART 2 IS ON THE NEXT PAGE

PART II: Sodium and the action potential
When you reach threshold, you increase the chances that voltage-gated Na channels
open up, causing Na ions to rush into the cell and change the membrane potential toward
the Na equilibrium potential (ENa). This is why the peak of the action potential is close to
ENa. 

1. What would happen if ENa were less positive; would you predict that the peak of the
action potential to be shorter or taller?
The peak of the action potential will be shorter because when the ENa is less positive, less Na will rush
into the cell to reach the threshold.

2. Set the amplitude of Stimulus 1 to 150. Measure and enter in the

table the time and membrane potential values for the inflection point, peak and
undershoot:

Membrane potential (mV) Time (ms)

Inflection point -46.56 0.7

Peak 39.42 0.92
Undershoot -75.73 2.1

3. Now let's change ENa. In the box labeled Membrane Parameters, set the Na
equilibrium potential to 0 mV and perform the same measurements:

Membrane potential (mV) Time (ms)

Inflection point -63.87 0.51

Peak -9.09 1.16

Undershoot -73.17 2.9

a. What is different?
Here, the membrane potential is lower to -10 instead of 40.

b. Why do you think this is?

As the value of the equilibrium potential is less, the action potential is also less.

c. What changes could you make to the Na concentration in the extracellular solution
to cause ENa to become less positive?
We can take Na out of the cell. When the concentration of Na is more negative, the ENa becomes less
positive.

4. Bonus: The rising phase action potential is mediated by Na entry into the neuron, the
falling phase is due to K ions leaving the cell. In the box labeled Membrane
Parameters, set the Na equilibrium potential to 50 mV and the K equilibrium potential
to -95 mV. What happens to the undershoot? Why?
More K+ have to move out of the cell to reach the equilibrium which will cause the equilibrium potential
lower. As a result, the undershoot will become lower.