Tutorial on electrophysiology: FAQs on membrane potential, action potential and synaptic potential

This monograph is a tutorial for students who find electrophysiology difficult. In order to provide an alternative approach to the typical narrative of textbooks, materials in this document are organized in a Q&A format. More importantly, I try to explain electrophysiology with extensive use of graphs. I believe that many biology and health sciences majors fear electrophysiology because they are not used to manipulating concepts crystallized in equations, even though they are good at organizing causal relationships and molecular information. Over the years, I have noticed that the graphs I draw to help my students during office hours are very different from the ones that appear in textbooks. This difference arises because textbooks select graphs that are economical for the flow of text and make efficient use of space, whereas the graphs on the white board in my office are initiated by students or else constructed directly in response to their questions. The goal of this little book is to use a “graph heavy” approach to accurately represent subtle electrophysiology concepts without resorting to equations. It should be used as a supplementary resource in association with conventional textbooks assigned to undergraduates, graduate students and medical students.