Abstract
The concept of electrical transmission in the mammalian central nervous-system (CNS) and its functional implications for normal physiology and pathology has generated much controversy. While it was proposed as early as the mid-19th century that neurotransmission could be electrical and chemical (1), experimental evidence for chemical neurotransmission obtained by Loewi, Eccles, Katz, and colleagues (2,3), undermined the concept of electrical coupling. The first evidence for electrical transmission occurred in invertebrate preparations and was reported almost simultaneously by Watanabe in 1958 (4), and by Furshpan and Potter in 1959 (5), the former venturing that the electrical coupling promoted synchronous firing of neurons. Experimental evidence for electrical transmission in vertebrates was obtained by Bennett and colleagues in 1966–67 (6,7) while working on the supramedullary neurons of the pufferfish and the motoneurons of the toadfish, where high frequency synchronous contractions of the swim bladder muscle require electrically coupled neurons. Later in 1973, Henri Korn and colleagues found electrical interactions in mammals (8), and at the same time Baker and Llinas found evidence for electrical transmission in the rat mesencephalic nucleus (9).
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Valiante, T.A., Perez Velazquez, J.L., Carlen, P.L. (2001). Recording and Analysis of Putative Direct Electrical Interactions in the Mammalian Brain. In: Bruzzone, R., Giaume, C. (eds) Connexin Methods and Protocols. Methods In Molecular Biology™, vol 154. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-043-8:395
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-043-8:395
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