A computational model of the integration of landmarks and motion in the insect central complex.
A computational model of the integration of landmarks and motion in the insect central complex.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0172325
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Marshall JA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cope AJ;Sabo C;Vasilaki E;Barron AB;Marshall JA
昆虫中央复合体（CX）是一个神秘的结构，其计算功能已经回避了调查，但已被牵连在广泛的行为。最近的实验证据从果蝇（果蝇）和蟑螂（Blaberus discoidalis）已经证明了存在的神经活动对应于动物的方向在一个虚拟的竞技场（神经“罗盘”），这提供了一个洞察CX结构的一个组成部分。罗盘活动有两个关键特征：罗盘所代表的角度与竞技场中视觉特征的真实角度位置之间的偏移，以及将270°视觉竞技场重新映射到罗盘中的整个神经元圈上。在这里，我们提出了一个计算模型，可以重现这个实验证据的细节，并预测的计算机制，数据的基础。我们预测，偏移和重新映射到神经罗盘上的苍蝇的方向可以解释的可塑性的突触之间的权重段的视野和代表方向的神经元。此外，我们预测这种学习依赖于神经通路的存在，这些神经通路检测整个视野中的旋转运动，并使用该旋转信号来驱动神经环吸引子中活动的旋转。我们的模型还再现了旋转对称地标时看到的视觉地标之间的“过渡”。该模型可以为进一步研究中央复合体的作用提供基础，中央复合体有望成为理解昆虫行为的关键结构，并提出创建完全自主机器人代理的方法。
The insect central complex (CX) is an enigmatic structure whose computational function has evaded inquiry, but has been implicated in a wide range of behaviours. Recent experimental evidence from the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and the cockroach (Blaberus discoidalis) has demonstrated the existence of neural activity corresponding to the animal’s orientation within a virtual arena (a neural ‘compass’), and this provides an insight into one component of the CX structure. There are two key features of the compass activity: an offset between the angle represented by the compass and the true angular position of visual features in the arena, and the remapping of the 270° visual arena onto an entire circle of neurons in the compass. Here we present a computational model which can reproduce this experimental evidence in detail, and predicts the computational mechanisms that underlie the data. We predict that both the offset and remapping of the fly’s orientation onto the neural compass can be explained by plasticity in the synaptic weights between segments of the visual field and the neurons representing orientation. Furthermore, we predict that this learning is reliant on the existence of neural pathways that detect rotational motion across the whole visual field and uses this rotation signal to drive the rotation of activity in a neural ring attractor. Our model also reproduces the ‘transitioning’ between visual landmarks seen when rotationally symmetric landmarks are presented. This model can provide the basis for further investigation into the role of the central complex, which promises to be a key structure for understanding insect behaviour, as well as suggesting approaches towards creating fully autonomous robotic agents.