Noise enhanced hormonal signal transduction through intracellular calcium oscillations Original Research Article

In a wide range of non-linear dynamical systems, noise may enhance the detection of weak deterministic input signals. Here, we demonstrate this phenomenon for transmembrane signaling in a hormonal model system of intracellular Ca2+ oscillations. Adding Gaussian noise to a subthreshold extracellular pulsatile stimulus increased the sensitivity in the dose–response relation of the Ca2+ oscillations compared to the same noise signal added as a constant mean level. These findings may have important physiological consequences for the operation of hormonal and other physiological signal transduction systems close to the threshold level.