Physics 380, 2011: Block four: Adaptation

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Back to Physics 380, 2011: Information Processing in Biology.

In this block, we have shown that

• Maximization of the input-output mutual information, in its various forms, leads immediately to adaptation, as a mechanism for efficient coding of the signal
• We have introduces two general types of adaptation --adapting to the mean of the signal and to its variance.
• Adaptation to the mean, including a perfect adaptation, can be achieved by negative feedback loops.
• We have discussed that if the responses need to be developed in a short time, without waiting for very long, then there is also adaptation of the time scales, the third type of adaptation.
• We have emphasized that many cognitive phenomena, such as learning, can also be interpreted as information processing and adaptation.
• We have read the papers that show that biological systems show all these different forms of adaptation.