Single channel recording techniques have been applied to neurons cultured from the hippocampus and the respiratory area of the brain stem of fetal rats in order to search for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) in the central nervous system. In addition to acetylcholine (ACh), the potent and specific agonist (+)-anatoxin-a was also used to characterize nicotinic channels. nAChRs were concentrated on the somal surface near the base of the apical dendrite, and in some patches their density was sufficient to record 2 or more channel openings simultaneously. Although a multiplicity of conductance states was also evident, the predominant population showed a single channel conductance of 20 pS at 10 degrees C. Thus, these neuronal nAChRs resembled the embryonic or denervated-type nAChRs in muscle. However, channel opening and closing kinetics were faster than reported for similar conductance channels in muscle. Therefore the nicotinic channels described here are similar but not identical to those of the well-characterized muscle nAChR, in agreement with biochemical, pharmacological, and molecular genetic studies on brain AChR.