[Structure of the theoretical distributions of postsynaptic potential amplitudes upon quantum analysis]

It is suggested that formulas commonly used to calculate theoretical amplitude distributions of postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) for their further quantum analysis lead to the overestimation of the quantum value variations (sigma nu) and neglect the variations of a noise level (sigma 2n). A proper formula taking into account both parameters in proposed. The necessity to consider sigma 2n is shown by statistical analysis of "individual" and "minimal" PSPs recorded in the neurons of the central ganglion of the snail and hippocampal neurons of the rabbit. Taking into account sigma 2n resulted in a better agreement between theoretical and experimental distributions and provided an indirect method for sigma nu estimation.