Computational modeling of an early evolutionary stage of the nervous system

The main questions How did the nervous system and the most primitive forms of intelligence came into being ? How a system can be organized during evolution that is able to ensure the adaptive behavior of a being ? What are the basic rules of construction that are sufficient to create a workable nervous system without specifying the details of the construction ?

Artificial life Artificial life Computational neuroethology Computational neuroethology Adaptive behavior Adaptive behavior Introduction

The animat and its environment Anatomy Anatomy Histology Histology Genetics Genetics Environment Environment

Anatomy Evolution of the nervous system are not separable from the anatomy and morphogenesis of the modeled animal The animat is a tube-like organism which is similar to the body structure of a Hydra whit most primitive nervous system and without tentacles

Histology Epithelial cells Epithelial cells Muscle cells Muscle cells Nerve cells Nerve cells

Genetics The basic information about the construction and functioning of animats are encoded in a genome

Environment The environment is modeled as a box The environment is modeled as a box The stimulus is the appearance of a piece of food The stimulus is the appearance of a piece of food

Experiments Parameters : Time and space-constant of the epithelial cells and nerve cells Time and space-constant of the epithelial cells and nerve cells Number of nerve cells Number of nerve cells Maximum length of neural processes Maximum length of neural processes

Time-constant and space-constant

Number of nerve cells

length of the processes

Summary Efficiency of conductivity Adaptivity of behavior A possible direction of evolution : Epithelial cells Creation of nerve cells Increasing the number of nerve cells Increasing the time- And space-constant of nerve cells Action potential