Periodic forcing of a K+ channel at various temperatures

Abstract

The random sequence of openings and closings of single ion channels and the channel conductances have been the object of intense study over the past two decades with a view toward illuminating the underlying kinetics of the channel protein molecules. Channels that are sensitive to voltage, such as many K(+)-selective channels, have been particularly useful, because the kinetic rates can be manipulated by changing the membrane voltage. Most such studies have been performed under stationary conditions and usually at a single temperature. Here we report the results of experiments with sinusoidal modulation of the membrane potential performed at several temperatures. Dwell time and cycle histograms, objects not normally associated with ion channel experiments, are herein reported. From the last, the transition probability densities for channel opening and closing events are obtained. A new and unusual phase anticipation is observed in the cycle histograms, and its temperature dependence is measured.

Stimulus-response curves of a neuronal model for noisy subthreshold oscillations and related spike generation

“…The productive role of stochastic fluctuations and specifically stochastic resonance for sensory encoding and biological systems in general has attracted much attention since the first paper on stochastic resonance in a sensory receptor was published by Moss and coworkers [33],. A multitude of papers than has been demonstrating productive qualitative noise effects in experimental and theoretical studies reaching from the molecular, cellular, systems and even to the behavioural level and disease models [8,12,18,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55].…”

Behavioral Stochastic Resonance: How the Noise from a Daphnia Swarm Enhances Individual Prey Capture by Juvenile Paddlefish

“…SR theory originated in e!orts to understand the periodicities in the recurrences of the Earth's Ice Ages (Benzi et al, 1981;Nicolis, 1993). The introduction of SR into experimental sensory biology (Douglass et al, 1993;Levin & Miller, 1996) and its observation in membrane ion channels (Petracchi et al, 1994;Bezrukov & Vodyanoy, 1995 stimulated wide interest. A report (Wiesenfeld & Moss, 1995) plus several reviews (Moss, 1994;Moss et al, 1994;Gammaitoni et al, 1998;Anishchenko et al, 1999;Moss, 2000) provide further information.…”

Membrane Clusters of Ion Channels: Size Effects for Stochastic Resonance

“…Stochastic resonance in single, biological potassium ion channels has also been investigated both theoretically [16] and experimentally [17]. Thus far, the experimental work did not convincingly reveal SR in single voltage-sensitive ion channels versus the varying temperature.…”