Entropically modified spiking ability and periodicity in clustered channels

Abstract

It has been shown that, in models of excitable clusters of voltage-gated sodium channels, the spontaneous rate of action potential and signal encoding ability exhibit multiple peaks at different cluster sizes due to an entropy effect in small system. In this paper, we show that similar results can be found in excitable cluster of ligand-gated calcium channels. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the periodicity of spontaneous Ca2+ spikes elicited by the cluster reveals multiple maxima at small discrete cluster sizes.