Measure nerve action potentials and muscle fiber postsynaptic potentials simultaneously in a crayfish.

In this experiment, extracellular nerve recordings are made with simultaneous intracellular recordings of the superficial flexor muscle. The enclosed documents complement the Crawdad Lab Manual found at http://www.sinauer.com/detail.php?id=9474. The main goal of this experiment is to map the innervation pattern of motor neurons onto the muscle. This is achieved by observing excitatory postsynaptic potentials in muscle fibers and matching them to identifiable action potentials. Students will also investigate synaptic plasticity by recording intracellularly from the superficial extensor muscle while extracellularly stimulating the nerve that innervates it. The setup outlined in the enclosed documents is appropriate for Exercise 8 “Synaptic Connectivity” and Exercise 9 “Synaptic Plasticity” in the Crawdad Lab Manual.