Voltage Clamp Experiment. The patch of membrane contained within the electrode tip is then ruptured to allow electrical and physical access to the cell thus providing control of the composition of both the intracellular and extracellular solutions during the. This clamps the cell membrane at a desired constant voltage allowing the voltage clamp to record what currents are delivered.
In voltage clamp experiments control the voltage across the membrane most of the electrophysiological studies were based on injection of current as stimuli and r. A basic voltage clamp will iteratively measure the membrane potential and then change the membrane potential to a desired value by adding the necessary current. As soon as the experiment is started by applying the clamping voltage to the axon s membrane the feedback amplifier commences comparison of the actual vm with the desired clamping voltage.
If vm deviates from the clamping voltage the feedback amplifier uses ohm s law to calculate the value of im required to return vm to the desired value recall that v i r i g and adjusts im based on the results of those calculations.
The voltage clamp is an experimental method used by electrophysiologists to measure the ion currents through the membranes of excitable cells such as neurons while holding the membrane voltage at a set level. As soon as the experiment is started by applying the clamping voltage to the axon s membrane the feedback amplifier commences comparison of the actual vm with the desired clamping voltage. In this special case all current is carried by k. A voltage clamp experiment for simplicity we illustrate the voltage clamp experiment in an axon with poisoned na channels and we ignore the small leakage currents.