Spontaneous bioelectric activity of cultured cerebellar Purkinje cells during exposure to agents which prevent synaptic transmission.

Abstract Analysis of the spontaneous activity recorded extracellularly from cultured Purkinje cells in Hanks balanced salt solution at 37°C reveals an average spike frequency of 17 ± 5spikes/sec and usually irregular interspike interval histograms. Increasing the concentration of Mg 2+ from 0.9 to 8 mmoles/liter leads to a significant regularization of firing of about half of the tested Purkinje cells, whereas the others stopped bioelectric activity. Pentobarbital (20 μg/ml) had the same effect, but addition of D -tubocurarine (10 μg/ml) or atropine (10 μg/ml) had no detectable effect on the rate and temporal distribution of the spontaneous activity. Neurons in peripheral areas of cultures fire regularly in solutions of normal as well as high concentrations of Mg 2+ .

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