A mathematical model for period-memorizing behavior in Physarum plasmodium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mathematical model for Physarum plasmodium's period-memorizing behavior, enhancing understanding of its mechanisms and improving reproducibility over previous models.

Contribution

It presents a minimal linear model and two modifications, nonlinearization and noise addition, to better replicate experimental observations.

Findings

The minimal linear model captures key behaviors.

Nonlinearization improves model accuracy.

Adding noise enhances reproducibility.

Abstract

A mathematical model to describe period-memorizing behavior in Physarum plasmodium are reported. In constructing the model, we first examine the basic characteristics required for the class of models, then create a minimal linear model to fulfill these requirements. We also propose two modifications of the minimal model, nonlinearization and noise addition, which improve the reproducibility of experimental evidences. Differences in the mechanisms and in the reproducibility of experiments between our models and the previous models are discussed.