Newcomb–Benford’s Law in Neuromuscular Transmission: Validation in Hyperkalemic Conditions

Abstract

Recently, we demonstrated the validity of the anomalous numbers law, known as Newcomb–Benford’s law, in mammalian neuromuscular transmission, considering different extracellular calcium. The present work continues to examine how changes in extracellular physiological artificial solution can modulate the first digit law in the context of spontaneous acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction. Using intracellular measurements, we investigated if the intervals of miniature potentials collected at the neuromuscular junction obey the law in a hyperkalemic environment. When bathed in standard Ringer’s solution, the experiments provided 22,582 intervals extracted from 14 recordings. On the other hand, 690,385 intervals were obtained from 12 experiments in a modified Ringer’s solution containing a high potassium concentration. The analysis showed that the intervals, harvested from recordings at high potassium, satisfactorily obeyed Newcomb–Benford’s law. Furthermore, our data allowed us to uncover a conformity fluctuation as a function of the number of intervals of the miniature potentials. Finally, we discuss the biophysical implications of the present findings.