Fully Automatic Multiresolution Idealization for Filtered Ion Channel Recordings: Flickering Event Detection

Abstract

We propose a new non-parametric segmentation method, JULES, which combines recent statistical multiresolution techniques with local deconvolution for idealization of ion channel recordings. The multiresolution criterion takes into account scales up to the sampling rate enabling the detection of flickering events, i.e., events on small temporal scales, even below the filter frequency. The deconvolution step allows for a precise determination of dwell times and, in particular, of amplitude levels, a task which is not possible with common thresholding methods. This is confirmed theoretically and in a comprehensive simulation study. Our new methodolodgy allows us to show that gramicidin A flickering events have the same amplitude as the slow gating events. JULES is available as an R function jules in the package clampSeg.