Figure 7. The time-dependent recovery from inactivation of A-currents.

Aa and Ba, superimposed traces of fast (A) and slow (B) transient outward currents followed by slowly decaying components elicited at −10 mV on return from hyperpolarizing prepulses of various durations stepped to −110 mV. Ab and Bb, plots of the amplitudes of peak outward currents (○) and slowly decaying components (•) versus prepulse duration. The slowly decaying components recovered mono-exponentially. The recovery time courses of the peak currents were bi-exponential with time constants of τ₁ = 132.2 ms, τ₂ = 28.9 ms and τ₁ = 70.4 ms, τ₂ = 21.2 ms, respectively. Each of the latter time constants represents the recovery time constant of the fast (28.9 ms) and slow A-current (21.2 ms).