Authors: Allan R Willms Dominic Nelson
Publish Date: 2008/05/30
Volume: 70, Issue: 5, Pages: 1503-
Abstract
Multistate models of ion channel gating have been used extensively but choosing optimally small yet sufficiently complex models to describe particular experimental data remains a difficult task In order to provide some insight into appropriate model selection this paper presents some basic results about the behavior of solutions of multistate models particularly those arranged in a chain formation Some properties of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of constantrate multistate models are presented A geometric description of a threestate chain is given and in particular differences between a chain equivalent to an Hodgkin–Huxley model and a chain with identical rates are analyzed One distinguishing feature between these two types of systems is that decay from the open state in the Hodgkin–Huxley model is dominated by the most negative eigenvalue while the identical rate chain displays a mix of modes over all eigenvalues
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