Bayesian restoration of single-channel patch clamp recordings

Abstract

The technique of patch clamp recording makes possible the measurement of current flowing through a single ion channel in a cell membrane. Examination of such recordings suggests that the current is quantal in nature, alternating in a seemingly random manner between "on" and "off," but the recordings are corrupted by noise from a variety of sources. In this paper we propose and illustrate methods for restoring the underlying quantal signal from such noisy measurements. The methods use a Markov chain prior distribution for the underlying quantal process and base the restoration on the resulting posterior distribution.