Signal Discretization: A Source of Error in Histograms of Ion Channel Events

Histograms are discretized representations of the distribution of stochastic events. When the precision of the measured event is limited, histogram distortion results from inappropriately selected histogram bin size. In particular, when histogram intervals are not integer multiples of the minimum discretization interval, a distorted characterization of stochastic events results. Errors of 50 percent in bin amplitudes are common and can lead to biased estimates of probability density function parameters. Histograms based on intervals that are integer multiples of the data sampling interval remove this source of distortion.