Prescott, T.J. (2007) Forced Moves or Good Tricks in Design Space? Landmarks in the Evolution of Neural Mechanisms for Action Selection. Adaptive Behavior, 15 (1). pp. 9-31. ISSN 1059-7123
Abstract
This review considers some important landmarks in animal evolution, asking to what extent specialized action-selection mechanisms play a role in the functional architecture of different nervous system plans, and looking for “forced moves” or “good tricks” (see Dennett, D., 1995, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, Penguin Books, London) that could possibly transfer to the design of robot control systems. A key conclusion is that while cnidarians (e.g. jellyfish) appear to have discovered some good tricks for the design of behavior-based control systems—largely lacking specialized selection mechanisms—the emergence of bilaterians may have forced the evolution of a central ganglion, or “archaic brain”, whose main function is to resolve conflicts between peripheral systems. Whilst vertebrates have many interesting selection substrates it is likely that here too the evolution of centralized structures such as the medial reticular formation and the basal ganglia may have been a forced move because of the need to limit connection costs as brains increased in size.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2007 International Society for Adaptive Behavior. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Adaptive Behavior. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | action selection; nervous system evolution; design space; computational neuroscience; behavior-based robots; Precambrian trace fossils |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Nov 2016 14:30 |
Last Modified: | 23 Mar 2018 05:03 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059712306076252 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1059712306076252 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:107041 |