Zimmer Cedric, Woods H Arthur, Martin Lynn B
Global Health and Infectious Disease Research Center, University of South Florida, FL 33612, USA; Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée, LEEC, UR 4443, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, 93430, Villetaneuse, France.
University of Montana, Division of Biological Sciences, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.
Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2022 Jan;33(1):8-17. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2021.10.001. Epub 2021 Nov 5.
Information theory has been applied productively across biology, but it has been used minimally in endocrinology. Here, we advocate for the integration of information theory into stress endocrinology. Presently, the majority of models of stress center on the regulation of hormone concentrations, even though what interests most endocrinologists and matters in terms of individual health and evolutionary fitness is the information content of hormones. In neuroscience, the free energy principle, a concept offered to explain how the brain infers current and future states of the environment, could be a guide for resolving how information is instantiated in hormones such as the glucocorticoids. Here, we offer several ideas and promising options for research addressing how hormones encode and cells respond to information in glucocorticoids.
信息论已在整个生物学领域得到有效应用，但在内分泌学中的应用却极少。在此，我们主张将信息论整合到应激内分泌学中。目前，大多数应激模型都集中在激素浓度的调节上，尽管大多数内分泌学家感兴趣的以及对个体健康和进化适应性至关重要的是激素的信息内容。在神经科学中，自由能原理这一概念旨在解释大脑如何推断环境的当前和未来状态，它可能为解决信息如何在诸如糖皮质激素等激素中体现提供指导。在此，我们针对激素如何编码以及细胞如何响应糖皮质激素中的信息这一研究，提出了一些想法和有前景的研究方向。
