TOCHASTIC RESONANCE: FROM EARTH'S ICE AGES TO HUMAN SENSORY SYSTEMS

摘要

Stochastic resonance has been studied intensively by physicists over the past decade or so. The phenomenon is seen in an extraordinarily wide variety of physical systems. More recently, researchers have asked whether stochastic resonance maybe relevant to problems in sensory biology. We give a brief overview of the subject and discuss our work on single hair cells in the auditory system, where Brownian motion of hair bundles improves the mechanoelectrical trans-duction of extremely weak signals.