ABSTRACT
Electrophysiological studies performed in vitro have supplied some of the best data on the transduction mechanisms linked to peptide receptor activation in the brain and this chapter focuses on results obtained from neurones in brain slice preparations, where electrophysiological and anatomical identification of the recorded neurones can be undertaken. The use of bacterial toxins in identification of the G-protein involved is widespread. The analysis of effector mechansims linked to tachykinin receptors is more complicated than that for Cholecystokinin. Somatostatin is a tetradecapeptide discovered in the hypothalamus which has been shown to alter neuronal excitibility in a number of brain regions, with the major body of research devoted to the hippocampus. In the mammalian brain, neuropeptides can modulate the excitability of neurones by changing the ion permeability of the neuronal membrane.
