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The sections in this article are Membrane Electrophysiology Source‐Field Relationships Applications

The study of electrophysiology has progressed rapidly because of the precise, delicate, and ingenious experimental studies of many investigators. The field has also made great strides by unifying these experimental observations through mathematical descriptions based on electromagnetic field theory, electrochemistry, etc., which underlie these experiments. In tum, these quantitative materials provide an understanding of many electrophysiological applications through a relatively small number of fundamental ideas.This text is an introduction to electrophysiology, following a quantitative approach. The first chapter summarizes much of the mathematics required in the following chapters. The second chapter presents a very concise overview of the principles of electrical fields and the concomitant current flow in conducting media. It utilizes basic principles from the physical sciences and engineering but takes into account the biological applications. The following six chapters are the core material of this text. Chapter 3 includes a description of how voltages/currents exist across membranes and how these are evaluated using the Nemst-Planck equation. The membrane channels, which are the basis for cell excitability, are described in Chapter 4. An examination of the time course of changes in membrane voltages that produce action potentials are considered in Chapter 5. Propagation of action potentials down fibers is the subject of Chapter 6, and the response of fibers to artificial stimuli, such as those used in cardiac pacemakers, is treated in Chapter 7. The voltages and currents produced by these active processes in the surrounding extracellular space is described in Chapter 8. The subsequent chapters present more detailed material about the application of these principles to the study of the electrophysiology of cardiac and skeletal muscle with a modest inclusion of neural electrophysiology.Although the material of this text was designed as an introduction to bioelectricity (electrophysiology) and one might think that fundamentals change very slowly, in fact the rapid growth of the field has reflected back changes in the underlying material. Since a quantitative approach to electrophysiology is a previi viii Preface cursor to the various new applications; it is, in fact, a real challenge keeping things up-to-date. This second edition is the authors' effort to bring the text more into line with the current new applications found in recent texts.In particular, we have introduced some underlying factors in molecular biology as it interacts with electrophysiology. While the result is a very modest introduction it is hoped that the treatment will outline the importance ofthis topic in bioelectricity. In other applications we have also endeavored to bring matters up-to-date. This is done in both the chapters on applications as well as those devoted to fundamentals. We hope this conveys to the reader our excitement with this field.The revisions also include many suggestions received from colleagues and especially our stu...

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