Letters to Editor
nature 144, 710-711 (21 October 1939) | doi:10.1038/144710a0
Action Potentials Recorded from Inside a Nerve Fibre
A. L. HODGKIN & A. F. HUXLEY
Top of pageAbstract
NERVOUS messages are invariably associated with an electrical change known as the action potential. This potential is generally believed to arise at a membrane which is situated between the axoplasm and the external medium. If this theory is correct, it should be possible to record the action potential between an electrode inside a nerve fibre and the conducting fluid outside it. Most nerve fibres are too small for this to be tested directly, but we have recently succeeded in inserting micro-electrodes into the giant axons of squids (Loligo forbesi)1.
