meeting posters and abstracts [ posters presented at meetings and their abstracts ]
Do Fruit Flies Have Free Will?
Author Björn Brembs, Chih-hao Hsieh, George Sugihara and Alexander Maye
Author email [email]
Author website [link]
Description Ever since the ancient Greeks, animals in general and insects in particular have been considered automata, or robots: if one only knew all their input variables, one could predict the motor output they would produce. However, even under constant environmental conditions, animals generate variable behavioral output. The question of whether such intrinsic behavioral variability reflects random noise (disorder) in otherwise deterministic input/output systems or an intrinsic, adaptive indeterminacy trait (order) is central for the basic understanding of brain function.
Here we show that spontaneously generated search algorithms (Lévy flights), but not random noise can account for the temporal structure in spontaneous yaw torque fluctuations in tethered Drosophila. Lévy flights are evolutionary conserved probabilistic behavior patterns, suggesting a general neural mechanism underlying spontaneous behavior. Further analysis suggests nonlinear mechanisms to be involved in generating these patterns, indicating a built-in, evolutionarily conserved spontaneity generator in the brain. We hypothesize that this generator can function independently of environmental input and that it evolved to generate flexible behavior in a complex world. Indeed, such flexible behavior patterns have been shown to outcompete random and deterministic patterns in a number of ecological situations. In the real world, predator avoidance and prey catching behavior spring to mind as other obvious beneficiaries from indeterminacy. One can easily conceive how “getting out of a rut” would also be difficult with only pre-programmed “responses”. Our findings imply that both general models of brain function and autonomous agents (robots or brain-based devices) must include relevant nonlinear, endogenous mechanisms if they strive to realistically simulate biological brains.
It is a tempting analogy to imagine all spontaneity being based on nonlinear feedback mechanisms in the brain.
Image no image available
Filesize 2.17 mb
Date Thursday 13 July 2006 - 03:52:56
Downloads 914
Download
Rating
Not rated 
Submit comment
Subject
Username:
Comment:

All trademarks are © their respective owners, all other content is © bjoern.brembs.net.
e107 is © e107.org and is released under the GNU GPL license.
linking back to brembs.net




Welcome Guest
Username:

Password:


Remember me

[ ]
[ ]
[ ]

Currently Online
Members: (0)
Guests: (12)
89.149.xx.xx is in News Comment - 164
Snap - download
Yahoo - Coppermine
203.162.xx.xx is in index
78.129.xx.xx is in index
85.91.xx.xx is in index
Yahoo - news
61.135.xx.xx is in Coppermine
203.162.xx.xx is in index
66.232.xx.xx is in news
77.222.xx.xx is in news
Yahoo - print

 Extra Information
Random pics




click to open in new window
aggregators
RSS Feeds
Our news can be syndicated by using these rss feeds.
rss1.0
rss2.0
rdf
Link to us
Link to us
GeoCounter
outils webmaster
Render time: 0.5259 sec, 0.2991 of that for queries.