Abstract
Valentino Braitenberg reported his seminal thought experiment in 1984 using reactive automatons or vehicles with relatively simple sensorimotor connections as models for seemingly complex cognitive processes in biological brains. Braitenberg's work, meant as a metaphor for biological life encompassed a deep knowledge of and served as an analogy for the multitude of neural processes and pathways that underlie animal behavior, suggesting that seemingly complex behavior may arise from relatively simple designs. Braitenberg vehicles have been adopted in robotics and artificial life research for sensor-driven navigation behaviors in robots, such as localizing sound and chemical sources, orienting toward or away from current flow under water etc. The neuroscience community has benefitted from applying Braitenberg's bottom-up approach toward understanding analogous neural mechanisms underpinning his models of animal behavior. We present a summary of the latest studies of Braitenberg vehicles for bio-inspired navigation and relate the results to experimental findings on the neural basis of navigation behavior in animals. Based on these studies, we motivate the important role of Braitenberg vehicles as computational tools to inform research in behavioral neuroscience.
Highlights
Behavioral neuroscience is the study of the structure and function of neural substrates in biological organisms with the goal of understanding the biological basis of behavior
The studies vary in the choice of biological organism under investigation as well as whether the hypothesis being tested is directly related to tropotaxis behaviors or to other related behaviors, such as obstacle avoidance
Generally speaking, analytical approaches are a better choice if the goal is to solve the problem of tropotaxis effectively while Braitenberg vehicles are an better choice if the goal is to understand underlying principles of biological tropotaxis
Summary
Behavioral neuroscience is the study of the structure and function of neural substrates in biological organisms with the goal of understanding the biological basis of behavior. Experimental approaches toward investigating neural mechanisms measure neural activity via voltage calcium imaging, neuron spike recording via electrodes as well as temporarily or permanently alter neuronal functioning by lesions, electrical or chemical stimulation and optogenetics. The theoretical approach toward understanding of brain function, i.e., computational neuroscience, utilizes mathematical modeling and computer simulation of neural structures to validate experimental data. While there is strong overlap and close interaction between experimental and theoretical neuroscience, there is clear consensus in the scientific community that interaction with the environment through a physical body is critical in fully understanding the role of neural substrates and mechanisms in behavior. The definition of behavior adopted here is as formulated by Levitis et al (2009)— “the internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli.”
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