Microelectrode Technique

in physiology, the technology used for measuring the electrc, concentration, and oxidation potentials of cells and their parts and for influencing them with electric current and various substances (strictly localized).

Microelectrodes were introduced in 1946 by the American scientists R. Gerard and G. Ling to obtain the electric potential of a neural fiber (mouse) and, later, of a single cell. In laboratory work metallic microelectrodes with tip diameters on the order of 1 micron (μ) and glass micropipettes filled with an electrolyte solution with tip diameters of less than 1 ju, are used; they are conveyed to the object of research with micromanipulators. Pericellular lead tapping of the current makes it possible to record action currents; intracellular lead tapping also makes it possible to record the levels of the membrane and postsynaptic potentials.

Recording biopotentials with microelectrodes requires a special boosting technique. The microelectrode technique has made it possible to investigate electric phenomena in nerve cells and has led to fundamental discoveries, including the mechanisms of synaptic transmission and the generation of action currents and data about the temporal and spatial distribution of the neural impulses that encode the transmission of information in the nervous system.