INTENSITY DISCRIMINATION IN A MODEL OF THE SENSE OF TASTE IN INSECT.

The extraordinarily high sensitivity of the feeding behavior of the fruitfly is examined within a simple biological sensory model consisting of a number of receptor cells and one central nervous system (CNS) neuron, where the CNS neuron integrates all inputs from the receptors. Information-theoretical analysis of the model shows that the uncertainty observed in the individual receptors can significantly be reduced by the integration of their responses. It is suggested that the principal effect of a structure composed of cooperating peripheral sensors is to improve the capability of discrimination of the biological system.