A universal theorem of sensory information

TL;DR

This paper introduces a universal theorem of sensory information, deriving a thermodynamics-like law that governs sensory adaptation and information gain across various modalities and species.

Contribution

It presents a novel thermodynamics-inspired framework for understanding sensory information, including a new inequality and a law of information gain during stimulation cycles.

Findings

Predicted a new inequality governing sensory adaptation.

Confirmed the inequality across multiple modalities and species.

Established that firing rate behaves like a thermodynamic state function.

Abstract

A universal theorem of sensory information, analogous to the second law of thermodynamics, is derived. Beginning from a minimal description of a sensory neuron, a state-space representation of firing rate emerges naturally from Shannon's measure of information. A special case of this formulation predicts a previously unknown inequality governing sensory adaptation, which was confirmed across different modalities, species, and experimental conditions. Further analysis shows that the firing rate behaves like a state function in thermodynamics, leading to an entropy production equation from which a general law follows: any closed cycle of stimulation yields a non-negative net gain of sensory information.