To begin, place the prepared spinal cord slice in the recording chamber. Then place the anode of the micro-manipulation system near the dorsal midline in the cathode close to the dorsal root entry zone for proper spinal cord stimulator positioning. Now switch to a 60X objective lens to identify a healthy neuron having a smooth and bright surface without visible nuclei.
Slightly decrease the infrared intensity, turn on the fluorescent light source, and adjust the light filter to the wideband ultraviolet excitation option. Now, select an appropriate Fluoro-Gold-positive motor neuron and gradually lower the electrode until it is near the neuron. As the pipette contacts its surface, look for a small membrane indentation at the tip level and release the previously-applied positive pressure.
Then apply negative pressure to the pipette using a syringe and wait until the resistance value rises to gigaohms on the software interface. Clamp the membrane potential at minus 70 millivolts. Press the fast capacitance compensation button on the amplifier's software interface, then apply a brief negative pressure to rupture the cell membrane and press the slow capacitance compensation button on the amplifier's software interface.
Apply the spinal cord stimulation for one to two seconds keeping the amplitude between one and 10 milliamperes. Determine the motor threshold by gradually increasing the stimulation amplitude until the first action potential is observed. Distinguish delayed and immediate firing motor neurons using a five-second depolarizing current injection around rheobase in the current clamp mode.
After turning off the spinal cord stimulation, continue recording the membrane potentials to capture the spontaneous action potentials firing. When the amplitude of spinal cord stimulation was raised, the membrane potential was increased, and the action potentials were triggered every 10 to 20 pulses. After the spinal cord stimulation was turned off, the neuron fired a series of spontaneous action potentials for a short period of time.
Then, the resting membrane potential returned to minus 65 millivolts.
