Modelling Natural Action Selection

by Seth, Anil K.; Prescott, Tony J.; Bryson, Joanna J.; Todd, Peter M.

• ISBN13: 9781107000490
• ISBN10: 1107000491
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-29
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Action selection is the task of doing the right thing at the right time. It requires the assessment of available alternatives, executing those most appropriate, and resolving conflicts among competing goals and possibilities. Using advanced computational modelling, this book explores cutting-edge research into action selection in nature from a wide range of disciplines, from neuroscience to behavioural ecology, and even political science. It delivers new insights into both detailed and systems-level attributes of natural intelligence and demonstrates advances in methodological practice. Contributions from leading researchers cover issues including whether biological action selection is optimal, neural substrates for action selection in the vertebrate brain, perceptual selection in decision making, and interactions between group and individual action selection. This first integrated review of action selection in nature contains a balance of review and original research material, consolidating current knowledge into a valuable reference for researchers while illustrating potential paths for future studies.

Author Biography

Anil K. Seth is a Reader in the School of Informatics at the University of Sussex, an EPSRC Leadership Fellow, and Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. His research-crosses the fields of computational neuroscience, consciousness science, and neurorobotics. In addition to contributing new insights into the mechanisms of action selection, he has developed new ways to linkbrain activity to conscious experience and he is well known for his research on the statistical analysis of causality. Tony J. Prescott is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield where he teaches courses on computational neuroscience and biomimetic robotics. His research lies within the biological and brain sciences, and concerns understanding the evolution, development, and function of natural intelligence. He is particularly well known for his work on modelling the neural substrates for action selection, and building robot models of animal and human behaviour. Joanna J. Bryson is a Reader in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath. She conducts interdisciplinary research on the origins, structure, and construction of human and animal-like intelligence and is involved in topics ranging from the evolution of altruistic communication to the ethical role of robots in our society. She is recognised for her work in systems AI and the design of action selection. Her most recent work is centred on the application of modelling to understanding the evolution of human social structures and culturally derived behaviour more generally.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. viii
Preface	p. xi
List of contributors	p. xii
General introduction	p. 1
Rational and optimal decision making
Introduction to Part I: rational and optimal decision making	p. 7
Do we expect natural selection to produce rational behaviour?	p. 12
Optimised agent-based modelling of action selection	p. 37
Compromise strategies for action selection	p. 61
Extending a biologically inspired model of choice: multi-alternatives, nonlinearity, and value-based multidimensional choice	p. 91
Bayesian approaches to modelling action selection	p. 120
Post-retrieval inhibition in sequential memory search	p. 144
Computational neuroscience models
Introduction to Part II: computational neuroscience models	p. 169
Action selection and refinement in subcortical loops through basal ganglia and cerebellum	p. 176
Cortical mechanisms of action selection: the affordance competition hypothesis	p. 208
Toward an executive without a homunculus: computational models of the prefrontal cortex/basal ganglia system	p. 239
Hierarchically organised behaviour and its neural foundations: a reinforcement-learning perspective	p. 264
The medial reticular formation: a brainstem substrate lor simple action selection?	p. 300
Understanding decision-making deficits in neurological conditions: insights from models of natural action selection	p. 330
Biologically constrained action selection improves cognitive control in a model of the Stroop task	p. 363
Mechanisms of choice in the primate brain: a quick look at positive feedback	p. 390
Action selection in social contexts
Introduction to Part III: action selection in social contexts	p. 421
Agent-based models as scientific methodology: a case study analysing the DomWorld theory of primate social structure and female dominance	p. 427
An agent-based model of group decision making in baboons	p. 454
Endogenous birth and death of political parties in dynamic party competition	p. 477
On optimal decision making in brains and social insect colonies	p. 500
State-dependent foraging rules for social animals in selfish herds	p. 523
Index	p. 538
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