1.1 PATCH of membrane with Hodgkin-Huxley channels

With a very simple program, you can learn about the action potential (AP,"impulse", "spike")and voltage clamp currents. The default HH parameters have been set up in this packaged program. You can make an almost unlimited number of changes in these parameters to answer many, many questions that you have always wondered about nerve impulses or the HH equations but were afraid to ask. You can run this program to see how impulses and voltage clamp currents are affected by:
temperature,
channel densities,
holding potential (for voltage clamps), and
blocking agents etc.
Furthermore there is much to be learned by:
finding the stimulus "threshold" for generation of an action potential and
looking for changes in the spike with cooling and warming. When the "crosshair" option has been chosen, your mouse cursor can point at each curve and give you the values of the amplitude at any time.
looking for changes in the peak amplitude of the spike with changes in ENa, the potential at which the Na current becomes zero (also called the "equilibrium" or "reversal" potential). To access the panel containing ENa, select "Membrane Parameters" in the Panel Manager or, to become familiar with more of NEURON's facilities:
Click on "Distributed Mechanisms" in Main Panel (the Main Panel may be partially hidden by others) Choose "Viewers" Choose "Shape name" Double click on the word "patch" You can keep the action potentials from being erased with each new run by pressing right mouse button when the cursor is in that graph and select "Keep lines" This will allow you to compare your experiments with those of Hodgkin and Katz (1949) on squid giant axons. They reduced the external Na concentration to 1/2 and 1/3 of normal; recovery was almost complete when the axon was returned to normal levels of seawater Na. You can do this and also increase the external Na concentration several fold without damaging the axon.

observing, with the stimulus set to zero, the effect of changes in the external or internal potasium by changing EK, the potassium equilibrium potential. This parameter can be changed in the same panel as was accessed for ENa.
Why not just click and see it run!