Abstract
Animals learn certain complex tasks remarkably fast, sometimes after a single experience. What behavioral algorithms support this efficiency? Many contemporary studies based on two-alternative-forced-choice (2AFC) tasks observe only slow or incomplete learning. As an alternative, we study the unconstrained behavior of mice in a complex labyrinth and measure the dynamics of learning and the behaviors that enable it. A mouse in the labyrinth makes ~2000 navigation decisions per hour. The animal explores the maze, quickly discovers the location of a reward, and executes correct 10-bit choices after only 10 reward experiences - a learning rate 1000-fold higher than in 2AFC experiments. Many mice improve discontinuously from one minute to the next, suggesting moments of sudden insight about the structure of the labyrinth. The underlying search algorithm does not require a global memory of places visited and is largely explained by purely local turning rules.
Highlights
How can animals or machines acquire the ability for complex behaviors from one or a few experiences? Canonical examples include language learning in children, where new words are learned after just a few instances of their use, or learning to balance a bicycle, where humans progress from complete incompetence to near perfection after crashing once or a few times
The female mouse forms an olfactory memory of her mating partner that allows her to terminate the pregnancy if she encounters another male that threatens infanticide
Another form of rapid learning accessible to laboratory experiments is fear conditioning, where a formerly innocuous stimulus gets associated with a painful experience, leading to subsequent avoidance of the stimulus (Fanselow and Bolles, 1979; Bourtchuladze et al, 1994)
Summary
How can animals or machines acquire the ability for complex behaviors from one or a few experiences? Canonical examples include language learning in children, where new words are learned after just a few instances of their use, or learning to balance a bicycle, where humans progress from complete incompetence to near perfection after crashing once or a few times. The female mouse forms an olfactory memory of her mating partner that allows her to terminate the pregnancy if she encounters another male that threatens infanticide Another form of rapid learning accessible to laboratory experiments is fear conditioning, where a formerly innocuous stimulus gets associated with a painful experience, leading to subsequent avoidance of the stimulus (Fanselow and Bolles, 1979; Bourtchuladze et al, 1994). These learning systems appear designed for special purposes, they perform very specific associations, and govern binary behavioral decisions. They are likely implemented by specialized brain circuits, and great progress has been made in localizing these operations to the accessory olfactory bulb (Brennan and Keverne, 1997) and the cortical amygdala (LeDoux, 2000)
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