What can be learnt from the analysis of short time series of ion channel recordings

The question, what information about the system can be derived from short time series of potassium current signal recorded at various voltages, has been posed. The statistical analysis of 4000-point data samples of ionic current in a single channel of the biological membrane is presented. The results suggest that for high voltages K+ current reaches its saturation state. Using a long control sample (250 000 points) we have shown that the main characteristics of the ionic current probability density and dwell time distributions do not depend on the series length.