Simple Analog Models to Teach Electrophysiological Concepts

Animal experiments, analog modeling and digital simulations are some means followed in laboratory practices to teach electrophysiological concepts. Advantages and disadvantages of these different strategies may change due to the teaching aims and education levels; none of these ways mentioned above is appropriate alone for all educational purposes. For a beginner who is coming up against the electrophysiological concepts for the first time, experiments on simple analog models would be more educational than all other means. In this work, two analog models involving simple and cheap electrical network components to teach the basic electrophysiological concepts have presented. The first one is suitable to simulate passive membrane properties while the second model involving batteries and manually controllable resistors is suitable to simulate the active membrane properties under space clamped conditions.