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The study of electrophysiology has progressed rapidly because of the precise, delicate, and ingenious
experimental studies of many investigators. The field has also made great strides by unifying
these experimental observations through mathematical descriptions based on electromagnetic
field theory, electrochemistry, etc., which underlie these experiments. In turn, these quantitative
materials provide an understanding of many electrophysiological applications through a relatively
small number of fundamental ideas.
This text is an introduction to electrophysiology, following a quantitative approach. The first
chapter summarizes much of the mathematics required in the following chapters. The second
chapter presents a very concise overview of the principles of electrical fields and the concomitant
current flow in conducting media. It utilizes basic principles from the physical sciences and
engineering but takes into account the biological applications. The following six chapters are the
core material of this text. Chapter 3 includes a description of how voltages/currents exist across
membranes and how these are evaluated using the Nernst–Planck equation. The membrane
channels, which are the basis for cell excitability, are described in Chapter 4. An examination of
the time course of changes in membrane voltages that produce action potentials are considered
in Chapter 5. Propagation of action potentials down fibers is the subject of Chapter 6, and the
response of fibers to artificial stimuli, such as those used in cardiac pacemakers, is treated in
Chapter 7. The voltages and currents produced by these active processes in the surrounding
extracellular space is described in Chapter 8. The subsequent chapters present more detailed
material about the application of these principles to the study of the electrophysiology of cardiac
and skeletal muscle with a modest inclusion of neural electrophysiology.
The material of this textwas designed as an introduction to bioelectricity (electrophysiology),
and one might think that fundamentals change very slowly. In fact the rapid growth of the
field has reflected back changes in the underlying material. Since a quantitative approach to
electrophysiology is a precursor to the various new applications; it is, in fact, a real challenge
keeping things up-to-date. The second edition is the authors’ effort to bring the text more into
line with the current new applications found in recent texts. |
