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Using an evolutionary algorithm to determine the parameters of a biologically inspired model of head direction cells

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Abstract

A biologically inspired model of head direction cells is presented and tested on a small mobile robot. Head direction cells (discovered in the brain of rats in 1984) encode the head orientation of their host irrespective of the host’s location in the environment. The head direction system thus acts as a biological compass (though not a magnetic one) for its host. Head direction cells are influenced in different ways by idiothetic (host-centred) and allothetic (not host-centred) cues. The model presented here uses the visual, vestibular and kinesthetic inputs that are simulated by robot sensors. Real robot-sensor data has been used in order to train the model’s artificial neural network connections. The main contribution of this paper lies in the use of an evolutionary algorithm in order to determine the values of parameters that determine the behaviour of the model. More importantly, the objective function of the evolutionary strategy used takes into consideration quantitative biological observations reported in the literature.

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Notes

  1. This arrangement however is not necessary. In fact, in the brain, HD cells have not been found to be arranged in any particular order that relates to their preferred head direction.

  2. http://www.mindstorms.rwth-aachen.de, last accessed on 26/5/2011.

  3. This was extracted from the results reported in Etienne et al. (1996).

  4. People with defective vestibular function.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank his colleagues Charles Day and John Butcher for the useful discussions he had with them during the work presented in this paper.

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  1. Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM), Keele University, Staffordshire, UK

    Theocharis Kyriacou

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Kyriacou, T. Using an evolutionary algorithm to determine the parameters of a biologically inspired model of head direction cells. J Comput Neurosci 32, 281–295 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10827-011-0352-x

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