I missed last week's paper selection, so this is actually two weeks.

• Cohan and Kater (1986). Suppression of Neurite Elongation and Growth Cone Motility by Electrical Activity. In snail neurons, inducing spikes reversibly stops dendritic growth.
• Neely and Nicholls (1995). Electrical activity, growth cone motility and the cytoskeleton. On the interaction between electrical activity and development.
• Voipio et al (1998). Ion-sensitive microelectrodes. I am looking for a way to precisely measure ion concentration. Ideally, I would like to do it in the axon but so far I haven't found anything really usable.
• Connors et al (1982). Activity-dependent K+ accumulation in the developing rat optic nerve. An example use of K+-sensitive microelectrode.
• Astman et al (2006). Persistent Sodium Current in Layer 5 Neocortical Neurons Is Primarily Generated in the Proximal Axon. This gives an indication of Na conductance density in the AIS.
• Tomba and Villard (2015). Brain cells and neuronal networks- Encounters with controlled microenvironments. Cool review on the use of microstructured environments for neurophysiology.
• Safronov and Vogel (199). Electrical Activity of Individual Neurons- Patch-Clamp Techniques. A textbook chapter on patch clamp techniques (starting our own experiments in the lab!).
• Schmidt-Hieber et al (2010). Fast Sodium Channel Gating Supports Localized and Energy-Efficient Axonal Action Potential Initiation. My colleague M. Kole pointed out to me the supplementary text of this paper, where they show that recordings in outside-out patches can actually show a voltage shift.
• Sather et al (1992). Activation and desensitization of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in nucleated outside-out patches from mouse neurones. Then I got interested in nucleated patch, which might be the weirdest patch clamp technique ever – large outside-out patches that enclose the cell's nucleus.
• Happel et al (2007). Scanning ion conductance microscopy–a tool to investigate electrolyte-nonconductor interfaces. This technique seems to be able to provide high-resolution morphological measurements of cells.
• Chen et al (2012). Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy.
• Toselli et al (1996). Functional changes in sodium conductances in the human Neuroblastoma Cell Line SH-SYSY During In Vitro Differentiation. I was training on patching those cells and was wondering whether they produce spikes (they do!).
• Johansson (1994). Graded action potentials generated by differentiated human neuroblastoma cells.
• De Loof et al (2012). The Fading Electricity Theory of Ageing- The missing biophysical principle. I haven't read it yet but it sounds intriguing!
• Mori and Peskin (2009). A Numerical Method for Cellular Electrophysiology based on the Electrodiffusion Equations with Internal Boundary Conditions at Membranes. This describes a method for simulating electrodiffusion in 3D (instead of 1D in the cable equation).
• Yang et al (2007). βIV spectrin is recruited to axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier by ankyrinG. Showing the molecular development of the AIS in hippocampal neurons.

I have not necessarily read these papers yet, so do not take these as recommendations, but simply papers I am curious to read. Most of them are not recent.

This week it has come to my attention that a number of unicellular organisms (such as Paramecium) produce action potentials, which are triggered by sensory events and produce behavioral responses.

• Pineda and Ribera (2009) - Evolution of the Action Potential. Actually about development rather than evolution.
• Davis et al. A Model of Drosophila Larva Chemotaxis.
• Casale et al. Cortical Interneuron Subtypes Vary in Their Axonal Action Potential Properties.
• Hinrichen (1988). Paramecium - a model system for the study of excitable cells. Paramecium is a pretty cool model system I got interested in this week (see below).
• Saimi and Kung (1988). Ion channels in Paramecium, yeast and Escherichia coli. Comparative physiology of unicellular organisms.
• Mechaly et al (2005) - Molecular diversity of voltage-gated sodium channel alpha subunits expressed in neuronal and non-neuronal excitable cells.
• Naitoh and Eckert (1968) - Electrical properties of Paramecium caudatum- all-or-none electrogenesis. All-or-none spikes in unicellular Paramecium.
• Kung and Saimi (1982). The Physiological Basis of Taxes in Paramecium.
• Goldsworthy (1983). The evolution of plant action potentials. A theory that action potentials originate from a membrane repair mechanism.
• Eckert and Brehm (1979). Ionic Mechanisms of Excitation in Paramecium. Basis of action potentials in paramecium.
• Machemer and Ogura (1978) - Ionic conductances of membranes in ciliated and deciliated Paramecium. Spatial segregation of ionic channels in paramecium.
• Harz and Hegemann (1991). Rhodopsin-regulated calcium currents in Chlamydomonas. Fig. 3A presumably indicating Ca2+ action potential in Chlamydomona (unicellular alga).
• Taylor (2009). A Fast Na+ /Ca2+ -Based Action Potential in a Marine Diatom. That is another unicellular organism.

I have decided to post once a week the list of papers I have noticed.

I have not necessarily read these papers yet, so do not take these as recommendations, but simply papers I am curious to read. Some are not recent papers, in which case I mention the year of publication.

• Csermely P. Plasticity‐rigidity cycles: A general adaptation mechanism.
• Coffman VC, Wu JQ (2012). Counting protein molecules using quantitative fluorescence microscopy. I am looking into how one can count the number of ionic channels in a neuron.
• Kuba et al. Redistribution of Kv1 and Kv7 enhances neuronal excitability during structural axon initial segment plasticity.
• Brunet and Arendt. From damage response to action potentials: early evolution of neural and contractile modules in stem eukaryotes. Potentially interesting perspective on why cells spike.
• Fields. A new mechanism of nervous system plasticity: activity-dependent myelination. Plasticity of conduction delays, a really cool topic.
• Blankenship and Feller (2010). Mechanisms underlying spontaneous patterned activity in developing neural circuits. I am trying to find a good and simple model of spontaneous activity (any good reference is welcome).
• Hodgkin and Rushton (1946). The Electrical Constants of a Crustacean Nerve Fibre. Earliest experimental demonstration of cable theory.