Morphological Investigations of Single Neurons in Vitro (IBRO Handbook Series: Methods in the Neurosciences)

General Editor: A. D. Smith Morphological Investigations of Single Neurons in Vitro Edited by Gloria E. Meredith and Gordon W. Arbuthnott Morphological Investigations of Single Neurons in Vitro brings together a variety of applications for isolated preparations. Although in vitro preparations have long yielded valuable data in physiological and pharmacological studies, their anatomical power has only recently come to light. Presented in this volume is a collection of methods which show all the major advantages of the Golgi technique while lacking many of its pitfalls. All procedures involve the intracellular filling of individual neurons and in some, previous tracing experiments identify the cells, while others select the neurons physiologically. The outlined methods are practical since ‘preselected’ neurons can be filled and analysed in bulk and the results are beautiful, as demonstrated by 8 pages of colour plates. Applications range from invertebrate ganglia to neurons in human autopsy tissue. The necessary equipment and materials are noted in most contributions and detailed instructions can be found in 24 different protocols grouped conveniently in the final chapter. This timely handbook should prove invaluable to all neuroscience workers whenever they seek to discover new details of neuronal morphology.