Marked continuous-time Markov chain modelling of burst behaviour for single ion channels (Q933889)

Summary: Patch clamp recordings from ion channels often show bursting behaviour, that is, periods of repetitive activity, which are noticeably separated from each other by periods of inactivity. A number of authors have obtained results for important properties of theoretical and empirical bursts when channel gating is modelled by a continuous-time Markov chain with a finite-state space. We show how the use of marked continuous-time Markov chains can simplify the derivation of (i) the distributions of several burst properties, including the total open time, the total charge transfer, and the number of openings in a burst, and (ii) the form of these distributions when the underlying gating process is time reversible and in equilibrium.