NIA2 workshop in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neurosciences at Georgetown University Medical Center is timed to compliment coursework

Oct 1, 2008 • Posted by Ann Stuart

On September 30 I gave a 4-hour workshop on NIA to the lively, engaged students of the Georgetown Neurosciences Program, as well as several faculty, preceded by a seminar presenting an overview of NIA and its background. The students each sat at a computer running a copy of NIA2 as I worked through major points from selected tutorials. The timing of the workshop, midway through the students' electrophysiology course and a week before the exam, was perfect.

We started with the Membrane Tutorial, focusing on capacitance as neuronal membrane area and the relation between capacitance and dV/dt. This tutorial drives home the importance of the rate of change of the voltage in getting a cell to fire. Next we did the Equilibrium Potentials tutorial, which is targeted to increasing an understanding of the resting potential, the action potential, and reversal potentials.

After a break we turned to the Na Action Potential tutorial, concentrating on the surprising pattern of the Na current in order to make clear the Ohm's Law relation between current, conductance, and driving force. After using the first experiment of the Threshold tutorial to resolve a discussion about whether there is or is not a voltage threshold, we did the entire Chattering Channels tutorial.

With energy still remaining in both me and the students, we zipped through features of the Unmyelinated Axon and Myelinated Axon tutorials. We decreased the diameter of the unmyelinated squid axon in order to slow the action potential, and played with the number of myelin wraps in the myelinated frog axon to find the optimal number. Finally, we ran the simulation in the Site of Impulse Initiation tutorial. It was a whirlwind tour of NIA that left us all worn out and satisfied!