title: In vitro electrical conductivity of seizing and non-seizing mouse brain slices at 10 kHz.
abstract: The electrical conductivity of small samples of mouse cortex (in vitro) has been measured at 10 kHz through the four-electrode method of van der Pauw. Brain slices from three mice were prepared under seizing and non-seizing conditions by changing the concentration of magnesium in the artificial cerebrospinal fluid used to maintain the tissue. These slices provided 121 square samples of cortical tissue; the conductivity of these samples was measured with an Agilent E4980A four-point impedance monitor. Of these, 73 samples were considered acceptable on the grounds of having good electrical contact between electrodes and tissue excluding outlier measurements. Results show that there is a significant difference (p = 0.03) in the conductivities of the samples under the two conditions. The seizing and non-seizing samples have mean conductivities of 0.33 and 0.36 S m(-1), respectively; however, these quantitative values should be used with caution as they are both subject to similar systematic uncertainties due to non-ideal temperature conditions and non-ideal placement of electrodes. We hypothesize that the difference between them, which is more robust to uncertainty, is due to the changing gap junction connectivity during seizures.
authors: School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Elbohouty
authors: M T
authors: MT
authors: Wilson
authors: L J
authors: LJ
authors: Voss
authors: D A
authors: DA
authors: Steyn-Ross
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: Hunt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D005260:Female; D017629:Gap Junctions / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012640:Seizures / Q000473:pathology*