Collective biological computation of metabolic economy

TL;DR

This paper models how insulin-secreting beta-cells use coupled stochastic oscillators and dual calcium release processes to perform biological computation, leading to a phase transition in collective response that enhances robustness and sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coupled oscillators model demonstrating how beta-cells compute through phase transitions driven by calcium signaling.

Findings

Beta-cell collective response exhibits a disorder-order phase transition.

Dual calcium release processes enhance robustness and sensitivity.

The model suggests an adaptive phase for sensory spectrum expansion.

Abstract

Presented with sensory challenges, living cells employ extensive noisy, fluctuating signalling and communication among themselves to compute a physiologically proper response which often results in symmetry breaking. We propose, based on the results of a coupled stochastics oscillators model that biological computation mechanism undertaken by insulin secreting beta-cells consists of a combination of dual intracellular Ca$^{2+}$ release processes to ensure multilayered exploration contributing to enhanced robustness and sensitivity. The computational output is what is macroscopically observed as disorder-order phase transition in collective beta-cell response to nutrient concentration increase. Based on the analogies from previoulsy described examples of biological computation, we argue that the initial response may be followed by an adaptive phase to expand the sensory spectrum and consolidate memory.