Stochastic resonance (sensory neurobiology)

Stochastic resonance is a phenomenon that occurs in a threshold measurement system (e.g. a man-made instrument or device; a natural cell, organ or organism) when an appropriate measure of information transfer (signal-to-noise ratio, mutual information, coherence, d', etc.) is maximized in the presence of a non-zero level of stochastic input noise thereby lowering the response threshold; the system resonates at a particular noise level.

Source: Wikipedia — Stochastic resonance (sensory neurobiology) (CC BY-SA 4.0)