Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 6: Poster I
BP 6.81: Poster
Montag, 1. April 2019, 17:30–19:30, Poster B2
Statistical Physics of Binary Decisions in Physarum polycephalum — •Tanja Huxoll and Hans-Günther Döbereiner — Universität Bremen, Institut für Biophysik
Physarum polycephalum is a unicellular giant amoeba that has been proposed as a model organism for basal cognition. Previous work by others demonstrated that Physarum makes optimal decision in choosing the best possible food source and exhibits complex behaviour such as speed-accuracy trade-offs. Here, we explore the binary decision process in Physarum. We are interested in the partition of the slime mould between different environments measured by the occupation probability of either side. Our experimental set up consists of two different environments, which differ only in KCl concentrations. KCl acts as an attractor or repellent depending on its concentration. Physarum is placed at the centre and the foraging behaviour is observed over time. We propose a simple statistical two state model to describe the probabilities of the area occupation for each environment Ps(c) = 1/1+exp(k c) with k=1/A dA/dc and Ps the occupation of the KCl side. We present our experimental results described by this model and we show that k is a measure of the percentage loss of the occupied KCl area with increasing repellent concentration.