title: History of electrophysiology and the patch clamp.
abstract: We provide a historic outlook on the development of the concept of bioelectricity, with emphasis on the neuromuscular junction as a model that revolutionized our thinking of the nerve, nervous, and muscle tissue excitability. We abridge some crucial experiments in defining the electrical excitability of biological cells. We also provide an insight into developments of tools and methods, which gradually yielded a contemporary "palette" of electrophysiology approaches, including the patch clamp. Pioneering steps in this journey, ranging from Galvani's experiments using the Leyden jar to those of Neher and Sakmann using a gigaseal patch-clamp approach, are pictorially illustrated. This chapter is meant to be a perspective to the following sections in this volume dedicated to patch-clamp methods and protocols.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK, Alexej.Verkhratsky@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verkhratsky
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parpura
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*