Figure 2.2.

States and weights for ion channel dynamics. (A) Current trace showing how the channel transitions back and forth between the open and closed states (Keller et al., 1986). By evaluating the fraction of time spent in either of these two states, we can compute the open (and closed) probability. (B) States of the two-state ion channel, the corresponding energies and the Boltzmann weights. (C) Plot of the probability of the channel being open as a function of the difference in energy between the open and closed states. This difference in energy can be tuned by the driving force such as ligands, voltages and tension on the membrane. The expression plotted corresponds to Eq. (2.3).