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Using Strategic Movement to Calibrate a Neural Compass: A Spiking Network for Tracking Head Direction in Rats and Robots

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, October 2011
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Title
Using Strategic Movement to Calibrate a Neural Compass: A Spiking Network for Tracking Head Direction in Rats and Robots
Published in
PLOS ONE, October 2011
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0025687
Pubmed ID
Authors

Peter Stratton, Michael Milford, Gordon Wyeth, Janet Wiles

Abstract

The head direction (HD) system in mammals contains neurons that fire to represent the direction the animal is facing in its environment. The ability of these cells to reliably track head direction even after the removal of external sensory cues implies that the HD system is calibrated to function effectively using just internal (proprioceptive and vestibular) inputs. Rat pups and other infant mammals display stereotypical warm-up movements prior to locomotion in novel environments, and similar warm-up movements are seen in adult mammals with certain brain lesion-induced motor impairments. In this study we propose that synaptic learning mechanisms, in conjunction with appropriate movement strategies based on warm-up movements, can calibrate the HD system so that it functions effectively even in darkness. To examine the link between physical embodiment and neural control, and to determine that the system is robust to real-world phenomena, we implemented the synaptic mechanisms in a spiking neural network and tested it on a mobile robot platform. Results show that the combination of the synaptic learning mechanisms and warm-up movements are able to reliably calibrate the HD system so that it accurately tracks real-world head direction, and that calibration breaks down in systematic ways if certain movements are omitted. This work confirms that targeted, embodied behaviour can be used to calibrate neural systems, demonstrates that 'grounding' of modelled biological processes in the real world can reveal underlying functional principles (supporting the importance of robotics to biology), and proposes a functional role for stereotypical behaviours seen in infant mammals and those animals with certain motor deficits. We conjecture that these calibration principles may extend to the calibration of other neural systems involved in motion tracking and the representation of space, such as grid cells in entorhinal cortex.

Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 60 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 4 7%
Netherlands 1 2%
Luxembourg 1 2%
Unknown 54 90%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 20%
Researcher 11 18%
Student > Master 8 13%
Student > Bachelor 4 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 7%
Other 10 17%
Unknown 11 18%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 9 15%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 9 15%
Computer Science 8 13%
Engineering 7 12%
Psychology 6 10%
Other 10 17%
Unknown 11 18%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 October 2011.
All research outputs
#20,147,309
of 22,653,392 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#172,535
of 193,422 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#122,123
of 132,872 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#2,425
of 2,614 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,653,392 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 2,614 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.