Pressure-clamped single-fiber recording technique: A new recording method for studying sensory receptors

An electrophysiological technique that can record nerve impulses from a single nerve fiber is indispensable for studying modality-specific sensory receptors such as low threshold mechanoreceptors, thermal receptors, and nociceptors. The teased-fiber single-unit recording technique has long been used to resolve impulses that are likely to be from a single nerve fiber. The teased-fiber single-unit recording technique involves tedious nerve separation procedures, causes nerve fiber impairment, and is not a true single-fiber recording method. In the present study, we describe a new and true single-fiber recording technique, the pressure-clamped single-fiber recording method. We have applied this recording technique to mouse whisker hair follicle preparations with attached whisker afferents as well as to skin-nerve preparations made from mouse hindpaw skin and saphenous nerves. This new approach can record impulses from rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors (RA), slowly adapting type 1 mechanoreceptors (SA1), and slowly adapting type 2 mechanoreceptors (SA2) in these tissue preparations. We have also applied the pressure-clamped single-fiber recordings to record impulses on Aβ-fibers, Aδ-fibers, and C-fibers. The pressure-clamped single-fiber recording technique provides a new tool for sensory physiology and pain research.

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Reference for developing single unit recording method in behaving animals with 3DnanoIC electrodes

IBRO Reports ◽

10.1016/j.ibror.2019.07.1741 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. S553-S554

Author(s):

Yeowool Huh ◽

Sanggeon Park

Keyword(s):

Single Unit ◽

Single Unit Recording ◽

Unit Recording ◽

Recording Method

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Responses of sagittally aligned Purkinje cells during perturbed locomotion: synchronous activation of climbing fiber inputs

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1992.68.2.570 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 570-580 ◽

Cited By ~ 74

Author(s):

J. S. Lou ◽

J. R. Bloedel

Keyword(s):

Purkinje Cells ◽

Single Unit ◽

Climbing Fiber ◽

Single Unit Recording ◽

Step Cycle ◽

Unit Recording ◽

Recording Technique ◽

Afferent System ◽

Fixed Array

1. These experiments were performed to test the hypothesis that climbing fiber inputs to sagittally aligned Purkinje cells located in a single folium are activated synchronously in response to a perturbation of the step cycle that interrupts the trajectory of the ipsilateral forelimb. 2. The experiments were performed in acutely decerebrate ferrets capable of walking spontaneously on a moving treadmill. A multiple single-unit recording technique was employed utilizing a fixed array of five sagittally oriented electrodes with electrode tips approximately 200 microns apart. 3. The extent to which the climbing fiber inputs to the recorded Purkinje cells were activated synchronously by the perturbation was calculated for individual trials by determining the synchrony index, a measure of the fraction of the cells responding to each perturbation. 4. The data indicate that there was a statistically significant increase in the synchronous activation of climbing fiber inputs at times immediately after the perturbation. No comparable complex spike modulation was found at the same phase of the unperturbed step cycle. 5. The specific combinations of climbing fiber inputs to neighboring Purkinje cells activated by successive perturbations varied from trial to trial. 6. The implications of these observations are discussed in the context of the nature of the inputs encoded by climbing fiber activation and the role of this afferent system in cerebellar cortical information processing.

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