PSYC 2410 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Anandamide, Catecholamine, Ligand-Gated Ion Channel
6 Apr 2013
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*to note: images important in textbook are marked by green and yellow stickers! Membrane potential: difference in electrical charge between the inside and the outside of a cell. Recording a membrane potential: to record a neuron"s membrane potential, position the tip of one electrode inside the neuron and the top of another electrode outside the neurone in the extracellular fluid. The intracellular electrodes are called microelectrodes: their tips are less than one-thousandth of a millimeter in diameter. Resting membrane potential: about -70mv in neurons, the neuron is said to be polarized. The resting potential results from the fact that the ratio of negative to positive charges is greater inside the neuron than outside. In resting neurons, k+ and cl- ions pass readily through the neural membrane, na+ ions pass through it with difficulty and the negatively charged protein ions do not pass trhough it at all.
