Intracellular Studies

Intracellular studies of motor cortical neurons

Individual motor cortex neurons receive messages through thousands of synapses and these synaptic messages can be recorded by inserting very fine glass pipettes (whose tips are less than 1 micrometer in size) into the cell body and recording voltage fluctuations. We record these synaptic potentials when sensory messages are sent from muscle and skin receptors. We also fill such neurons with a dye to study their structure in detail.

Photomicrographs of a neuron intracellularly labeled with horseradish peroxidase. Camera lucida reconstruction of intracellularly labelled neurons showing the complex arborization of dendritic and axonal processes.

• Introduction
• Motor Maps
• Cortical Connections
• Intracellular Studies
• Movement Associated activity in the motor cortex