The sucrose gap technique is used to create a conduction block in nerve or muscle fibers. A high concentration of sucrose is applied to the extracellular space to increase resistance between two groups of cells, which prevents the correct opening and closing of sodium and potassium channels. It was originally developed by Robert Stämpfli for recording action potentials in nerve fibers, and is particularly useful for measuring irreversible or highly variable pharmacological modifications of channel properties since untreated regions of membrane can be pulled into the node between the sucrose regions.
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“Here is the place; right over the hill
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—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)