Directed intermittent search for a hidden target on a dendritic tree
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Published version
Author(s)
Newby, Jay M
Bressloff, Paul C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Motivated by experimental observations of active (motor-driven) intracellular transport in neuronal dendrites, we analyze a stochastic model of directed intermittent search on a tree network. A particle injected from the cell body or soma into the primary branch of the dendritic tree randomly switches between a stationary search phase and a mobile nonsearch phase that is biased in the forward direction. A (synaptic) target is presented somewhere within the tree, which the particle can locate if it is within a certain range and in the searching phase. We approximate the moment generating function using Green’s function methods. The moment generating function is then used to compute the hitting probability and conditional mean first passage time to the target. We show that in contrast to a previously explored finite interval case, there is a range of parameters for which a bidirectional search strategy is more efficient than a unidirectional one in finding the target.
Date Issued
2009-08
Date Acceptance
2009-08-01
Citation
Physical Review E, 2009, 80 (2)
ISSN
1539-3755
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review E
Volume
80
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
©2009 American Physical Society
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/physreve.80.021913
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
021913
Date Publish Online
2009-08-13