Modeling the statistics of elementary calcium release events

Elementary $Ca^{2+}$ signals, such as '$Ca^{2+}$ puffs', which arise from the release of $Ca^{2+}$ from Endoplasmic Reticulum through small clusters of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors, are the building blocks for intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ - signaling. The small number of release channels involved during a $Ca^{2+}$ puff renders the puffs stochastic with distributed amplitudes, durations and frequency, well characterized experimentally. We present a stochastic model that accurately describes simultaneously the statistical properties of the duration, amplitudes, frequencies, and spatial spread with a single set of parameters.