Efficiency of cellular information processing

Abstract

We show that a rate of conditional Shannon entropy reduction, characterizing the learning of an internal process about an external process, is bounded by the thermodynamic entropy production. This approach allows for the definition of an informational efficiency that can be used to study cellular information processing. We analyze three models of increasing complexity inspired by the E. coli sensory network, where the external process is an external ligand concentration jumping between two values. We start with a simple model for which ATP must be consumed so that a protein inside the cell can learn about the external concentration. With a second model for a single receptor we show that the rate at which the receptor learns about the external environment can be nonzero even without any dissipation inside the cell since chemical work done by the external process compensates for this learning rate. The third model is more complete, also containing adaptation. For this model we show inter alia that a bacterium in an environment that changes at a very slow time-scale is quite inefficient, dissipating much more than it learns. Using the concept of a coarse-grained learning rate, we show for the model with adaptation that while the activity learns about the external signal the option of changing the methylation level increases the concentration range for which the learning rate is substantial.

18 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Work and information processing in a solvable model of Maxwell's demon
• The thermodynamics of prediction
• Nonequilibrium Detailed Fluctuation Theorem for Repeated Discrete Feedback
• Thermodynamic costs of information processing in sensory adaption
• Thermodynamics of feedback controlled systems
• Stochastic thermodynamics for "Maxwell demon" feedbacks
• Information-theoretic vs. thermodynamic entropy production in autonomous sensory networks

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Thermodynamic uncertainty relation for biomolecular processes
• Cost and Precision of Brownian Clocks
• Maxwell's demon in biochemical signal transduction with feedback loop
• Hierarchical Bounds on Entropy Production Inferred from Partial Information
• Multipartite information flow for multiple Maxwell demons
• Nonequilibrium sensing and its analogy to kinetic proofreading
• Stochastic Thermodynamics of Learning
• Thermodynamics of accuracy in kinetic proofreading: Dissipation and efficiency trade-offs
• Critical behavior of entropy production and learning rate: Ising model with an oscillating field
• Thermodynamics and computation during collective motion near criticality
• Continuous information flow fluctuations
• Stochastic thermodynamics of periodically driven systems: Fluctuation theorem for currents and unification of two classes
• Stochastic thermodynamics of interacting degrees of freedom: Fluctuation theorems for detached path probabilities
• Thermodynamic efficiency of learning a rule in neural networks
• Foundations of Stochastic Thermodynamics