OSCILLATIONS IN THE ACTIVITY OF A POTASSIUM CHANNEL AT THE PRESYNAPTIC NERVE-TERMINAL

1. Periodic oscillations were detected in the activity of single macro molecules: potassium channels. 2. When potassium channels are repeated ly activated in isolated patches from fused synaptosomes of Torpedo el ectric organ, their behavior exhibits a departure from random activati on. 3. The departure from random behavior is demonstrated by the runs test and by the lack of fit to Poisson distribution. 4. Under appropri ate experimental conditions, the channels display periodic oscillation s with a periodicity of similar to 20 s when activated at a rate of 1. 25 Hz. 5. The oscillations do not arise from sampling, recording, or c omputational artifacts. 6. It is conceivable that single-channel oscil lations play a role in the generation of membrane oscillations and thu s may contribute to the oscillatory behavior of the nervous system.