Optimized performance for different systems: (a) shows the expected pay-offs for each system (solid line, thalamus alone; triangles and dotted line, cortex alone; circles and dashed line, chained; crosses and solid line, thalamus aware; triangles and dashed line, cortex aware; dotted line, both aware) and (b) shows the optimal thalamic threshold values, measured with respect to the mean value of the distribution when no predator is present (dashed line, thalamus aware; dotted line, thalamus alone; solid line, both aware). In each case, vf=10, μthal1−μthal0=3, cortical separation per unit time=8, s=1=c and all distributions have unit variance (per unit time for the cortical system).