Figure 7. Slowing of channel recovery from inactivation by volatile anesthetics. Shown here as an example is the effect of halothane. The pulse protocol for recovery from inactivation included a reference pulse to -10 mV, a recovery interval of variable duration at -100 mV, and a test pulse to -10 mV (inset). Relative currents (I^test/I^reference) are plotted versus the length of the recovery interval. In this example, the time constant of recovery is increased from a control value of 1.26 ms (open circles) to 3.09 ms by 0.5 mM halothane (filled circles) and to 4.55 ms by 1.1 mM halothane (open triangles).