dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaErrors drive the evolution of biological signalling to costly codes
| Authors | G. Garcia de Polavieja |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0102076 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0102076 |
| Journal | Journal of Theoretical Biology 214(4), 657 (2002) |
Abstract
Reduction of costs in biological signalling seems an evolutionary advantage, but recent experiments have shown signalling codes shifted to signals of high cost with a underutilisation of low cost signals. Here I show that errors in the efficient translation of biological states into signals shift codes to higher costs, effectively performing a quality control. The statistical structure of signal usage is predicted to be of a generalised Boltzmann form that penalises signals that are costly and sensitive to errors. This predicted distribution of signal usage against signal cost has two main features: an exponential tail required for cost efficiency and an underutilisation of the low cost signals required to protect the signalling quality from the errors. These predictions are shown to correspond quantitatively to the experiments in which gathering signal statistics is feasible as in visual cortex neurons.
{
"annotation_id": "60d54949-0693-4743-9dbc-50fe3ca2b9ae",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:35.183000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:35.183000Z",
"file_hash": "25dc61510a89b9c8c3a17966881ceeeead964744196b5cd2534dae6c09eabbdc",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "Reduction of costs in biological signalling seems an evolutionary advantage,\nbut recent experiments have shown signalling codes shifted to signals of high\ncost with a underutilisation of low cost signals. Here I show that errors in\nthe efficient translation of biological states into signals shift codes to\nhigher costs, effectively performing a quality control. The statistical\nstructure of signal usage is predicted to be of a generalised Boltzmann form\nthat penalises signals that are costly and sensitive to errors. This predicted\ndistribution of signal usage against signal cost has two main features: an\nexponential tail required for cost efficiency and an underutilisation of the\nlow cost signals required to protect the signalling quality from the errors.\nThese predictions are shown to correspond quantitatively to the experiments in\nwhich gathering signal statistics is feasible as in visual cortex neurons.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0102076",
"authors": [
"G. Garcia de Polavieja"
],
"categories": [
"physics.bio-ph",
"cond-mat.dis-nn",
"physics.data-an",
"physics.gen-ph",
"q-bio"
],
"journal_ref": "Journal of Theoretical Biology 214(4), 657 (2002)",
"title": "Errors drive the evolution of biological signalling to costly codes",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0102076"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "70a138cd-6711-489a-bc86-f5490bce2a1c",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}