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Environmental Statistics and Optimal Regulation

Figure 4

In a bimodal environment, increasing measurement noise shifts the optimal strategy from classification to constitutive response.

For a quadratic cost function, tight distribution within each environmental mode (such that ), and relatively slow environmental dynamics between distinct environmental modes (with mode separation ), the dimensionless ratio determines the preference among regulatory strategies [see Eq. (8)]. High relative measurement noise (, right column) leads to a preference for constitutive response; low relative measurement noise (, left column) produces a preference for classifying the environment into the most likely among the two modes; and the intermediate case (, middle column) produces a preference for non-degenerate Bayesian inference.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003826.g004