TY - JOUR TI - A dynamic clamp protocol to artificially modify cell capacitance AU - Pfeiffer, Paul AU - Barreda Tomás, Federico José AU - Wu, Jiameng AU - Schleimer, Jan-Hendrik AU - Vida, Imre AU - Schreiber, Susanne A2 - Calabrese, Ronald L A2 - Golowasch, Jorge A2 - Calabrese, Ronald L VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/04/01 SP - e75517 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e75517 DO - 10.7554/eLife.75517 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75517 AB - Dynamics of excitable cells and networks depend on the membrane time constant, set by membrane resistance and capacitance. Whereas pharmacological and genetic manipulations of ionic conductances of excitable membranes are routine in electrophysiology, experimental control over capacitance remains a challenge. Here, we present capacitance clamp, an approach that allows electrophysiologists to mimic a modified capacitance in biological neurons via an unconventional application of the dynamic clamp technique. We first demonstrate the feasibility to quantitatively modulate capacitance in a mathematical neuron model and then confirm the functionality of capacitance clamp in in vitro experiments in granule cells of rodent dentate gyrus with up to threefold virtual capacitance changes. Clamping of capacitance thus constitutes a novel technique to probe and decipher mechanisms of neuronal signaling in ways that were so far inaccessible to experimental electrophysiology. KW - membrane capacitance KW - dynamic clamp KW - single neuron dynamics KW - closed-loop feedback KW - neuronal morphology JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -