Violation of generalized fluctuation theorems in adaptively driven steady states: Applications to hair cell oscillations

Abstract

The spontaneously oscillating hair bundle of sensory cells in the inner ear is an example of a stochastic, nonlinear oscillator driven by internal active processes. Moreover, this internal activity is adaptive -- its power input depends on the current state of the system. We study fluctuation dissipation relations in such adaptively-driven, nonequilibrium limit-cycle oscillators. We observe the expected violation of the well-known, equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT), and verify the existence of a generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem (GFDT) in the non-adaptively driven model of the hair cell oscillator. This generalized fluctuation theorem requires the system to be analyzed in the co-moving frame associated with the mean limit cycle of the stochastic oscillator. We then demonstrate, via numerical simulations and analytic calculations, that the adaptively-driven dynamical hair cell model violates both the FDT and the GFDT. We go on to show, using stochastic, finite-state, dynamical models, that such a feedback-controlled drive in stochastic limit cycle oscillators generically violates both the FDT and GFDT. We propose that one may in fact use the breakdown of the GFDT as a tool to more broadly look for and quantify the effect of adaptive, feedback mechanisms associated with driven (nonequilibrium) biological dynamics.