One of the few known cases of a functional system in which ephaptic coupling is responsible for an observable physiological event is in the Purkinje cells of the rat cerebellum. It was demonstrated in this study that the basket cells which encapsulate some regions of Purkinje fibers can cause inhibitory effects on the Purkinje cells. The firing of these basket cells, which occurs more rapidly than in the Purkinje cells, draws current across the Purkinje cell and generates a passive hyperpolarizing potential which inhibits the activity of the Purkinje cell. Although the exact functional role of this inhibition is still unclear, it may well have a synchronizing effect in the Purkinje cells as the ephaptic effect will limit the firing time.
A similar ephaptic effect has been studied in the Mauthner cells of teleosts.