Test of the nonequilibrium kinetic focusing of voltage-gated ion channels

It has been shown numerically (Millonas and Chialvo 1996 Phys. Rev. Lett. 76 550) that voltage-gated ion channels can be focused into specific conformational states by the application of fluctuating voltages, such as dichotomous noise. We present results of an experimental test performed on Shaker K(+) channels. We applied dichotomous noise with properties mimicking the numerical simulations as closely as physiologically feasible. We observed that the probability for intermediate states can be increased as much as 50% above the maximal value for any static voltages.