Remark the UNDERSTANDING

IBRO COURSE
Quantal Release Hypothesis by Katz
• One of Katz’s seminal findings, in studies carried out with
Paul Fatt in 1951, was that spontaneous changes in muscle
cell membrane potential occur even in the absence of
stimulation of the presynaptic motor neuron (Figure 5.4C).
These changes have the same shape as EPPs but are much
smaller (typically less than 1 mV in amplitude, compared to
an EPP of perhaps 40 or 50 mV). Both EPPs and these small,
spontaneous events are sensitive to pharmacological
agents that block postsynaptic acetylcholine receptors,
such as curare . These and other parallels between EPPs
and the spontaneously occurring depolarizations led Katz
and his colleagues to call these spontaneous events
miniature end plate potentials, or MEPPs.