Visuomotor Coordination: Amphibians, Comparisons, Models, and Robots

931 Pages·1989·51.63 MB·English

by  M. A. Arbib

Visuomotor
Coordination
Amphibians, Comparisons,
Models, and Robots
Visuomotor
Coordination
Amphibians, Comparisons,
Models, and Robots
Edited by
Jorg-Peter Ewert
University of Kassel
Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany
and
Michael A. Arbib
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
International Workshop on Visuomotor Coordination in Amphibians: Experiments,
Comparisons, Models, and Robots (1987: Kassel, Germany)
Visuomotor coordination: amphibians, comparisons, and models, and
robots I edited by Jorg-Peter Ewert and Michael A. Arbib.
p. em.
"Proceedings of an International Workshop on Visuomotor Coordination in Amphi
bians: Experiments, Comparisons, Models, and Robots, held August 25-27, 1987, in
Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany"-T.p. verso.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4899-0899-5 ISBN 978-1-4899-0897-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1
1. Amphibians-Physiology-Congresses. 2. Vision-Congresses. 3. Sensorimotor
integration-Congresses. I. Ewert, Jtirg-Peter, 1938- II. Arbib, Michael A. III.
Title.
QL669.2.159 1987 89-8467
597.6'041-dc20 CIP
Proceedings of an International Workshop on Visuomotor
Coordination in Amphibians: Experiments, Comparisons,
Models, and Robots, held August 25-27, 1987,
in Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany
© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
This book is dedicated to the memory of our friends
Hans-Wilhelm Borchers, Rolando Lara, and Elena Sandoval
killed in a car crash close to Cuernavaca in Mexico on January 19, 1985.
We remember their significant contributions
to the understanding of the amphibian visual system
as we mourn their loss.
A sampling of their last papers is included in the present volume.
Contributors
P. ARAIZA, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de
Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D.F., Mexico
MICHAEL A. ARBIB, Departments of Computer Science, Neurobiology, Physiology,
Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Psychology, University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0782, USA
RONALD C. ARKIN, Department of Information and Computer Science, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA
ULRICH BAsSLER, Fachbereich Biologie, Universitat Kaiserslautern, D-6750
Kaiserslautern, FR Germany
THOMAS W. BENEKE, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/Chemie,
Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kassel, FR Germany
M. B. BERKINBLIT, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Academy of
Sciences and Moscow State University, Moscow 101447, USSR
BILL BETTS, Program in Neural, Informational, and Behavioral Sciences, University
of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0782, USA
HANS-WILHELM BORCHERS+, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/
Chemie, Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kassel, FR Germany
FRANCISCO CERVANTES-PEREZ, Departamento de Neurosciencias, Instituto de
Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D.F.,
Mexico
THOMAS EGGERT, Max-Planck-Institut fiir Verhaltensphysiologie Seewiesen, D-
8130 Seewiesen/Stamberg, FR Germany
JORG-PETER EWERT, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/Chemie,
Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kassel, FR Germany
vii
viii CONTRIBUTORS
A. G. FELDMAN, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Academy of
Sciences and Moscow State University, Moscow 101447, USSR
J. FERNANDEZ, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de
Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D.F., Mexico
THOMAS FINKENSTADT, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/
Chemie, Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kassel, FR Germany
EDDA M. FRAMING, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/Chemie,
Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kasse~ FR Germany
0. I. FUKSON, Institute for Information Transmission ·Problems, Academy of
Sciences and Moscow State University, Moscow 101447, USSR
FRANCISCO GONZALEZ-LIMA, Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine,
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
PAUL GROBSTEIN, Department of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr,
Pennsylvania 19010, USA
EDWARD R. GRUBERG, Biology Department, Temple University, Philadelphia,
PA 19122, USA
UWE ANDER HEIDEN, Fakultat fiir Naturwissenschaften, Universitat Witten/
Herdecke, D-5810 Witten, FR Germany
BARRY HORWITZ, Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging,
National Institutes of Health, Bldg. 10, RM. 12S-207, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
REINHARD KOY-OBERTHOR, Institut fiir Elektrische lnformationstechnik, Tech
nische Universitat Clausthal, D-3392 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, FR Germany
PETER R. LAMING, Department of Biology, Queen's University of Belfast, Bel
fast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK
ROLANDO LARA+, Centro de Investigaciones en Fisiologia Celular, Universidad
Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, 04510 Mexico D.F., Mexico
GYULA LAZAR, Department of Anatomy, University Medical School, Pees, H-7643,
Hungary
HANSPETERA. MALLOT, Institut fiir Zoologie lli (Biophysik), Johannes Guten
berg-Universitat, D-6500 Mainz, FR Germany
CONI'RIBUTORS ix
CHRISTOPH VONDERMALSBURG, Department of Computer Science and Neuro
biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0782, USA
GERHARD MANTEUFFEL, Fachbereich Biologie, Universitat Bremen, D-2800
Bremen, FR Germany
L. MASSIEU, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de
Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D.P., Mexico
NOBUYOSHI MATSUMOTO, Department of Biophysical Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560, Japan
HORST MITIELSTAEDT, Max-Planck-Institut fiir Verhaltenspbysiologie See
wiesen, D-8130 Seewiesen/Stamberg, FR Germany
CHRISTOPH PINKWART, Holderlinstr. 10, D-8500 Niirnberg 20, FR Germany
HERBERT J. REITBOECK, Angewandte Physik und Biophysik, Philipps-Universitat
Marburg, D-3550 Marburg, FR Germany
GERHARD ROTH, Fachbereich 2/Biologie, Universitat Bremen, D-2800 Bremen 33,
FRGermany
M. E. SANDOVAL+, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional
Aut6noma de Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D.F., Mexico
EVELYN SCifORG-PFEIFFER, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/
Chemie, Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kasse~ FR Germany
WOLFGANG W. SCHWIPPERT, Abteilung Neuroethologie, Fachbereich Biologie/
Chemie, Universitat Kassel, D-3500 Kassel, FR Germany
WERNER VON SEELEN, lnstitut fiir Zoologie ID (Biophysik), Johannes Gutenberg
Universitat, D-6500 Mainz, FR Germany
CARME TORRAS, Institut de Cibem~tica (CSIC-UPC), Diagonal647, 08028-
Barcelona, Spain
ANANDA WEERASURIYA, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Uni
versity of Colombo, Colombo-8, Sri Lanka
Preface
Various brain areas of mammals can phyletically be traced back to homologous
structures in amphibians. The amphibian brain may thus be regarded as a kind of
"microcosm" of the highly complex primate brain, as far as certain homologous
structures, sensory functions, and assigned ballistic (pre-planned and pre-pro
grammed) motor and behavioral processes are concerned. A variety of fundamental
operations that underlie perception, cognition, sensorimotor transformation and its
modulation appear to proceed in primate's brain in a way understandable in terms of
basic principles which can be investigated more easily by experiments in amphibians.
We have learned that progress in the quantitative description and evaluation of these
principles can be obtained with guidance from theory. Modeling - supported by
simulation - is a process of transforming abstract theory derived from data into
testable structures. Where empirical data are lacking or are difficult to obtain
because of structural constraints, the modeler makes assumptions and approximations
that, by themselves, are a source of hypotheses. If a neural model is then tied to
empirical data, it can be used to predict results and hence again to become subject to
experimental tests whose resulting data in tum will lead to further improvements of
the model. By means of our present models of visuomotor coordination and its
modulation by state-dependent inputs, we are just beginning to simulate and analyze
how external information is represented within different brain structures and how
these structures use these operations to control adaptive behavior.
Vzsuomotor Coordination: Amphibians, Comparisons, Models, and Robots
presents for a larger audience the proceedings of the third international workshop on
this topic, organized by Peter Ewert at the University of Kassel in August '15-27, 1987.
The interdisciplinary workshops on visuomotor coordination in frogs and toads have a
successful tradition. The first meeting was organized by Michael Arbib at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1981 and the second by Rolando Lara at
the University of Mexico in 1982. Meanwhile a wealth of new experimental data on
visuomotor functions in target-oriented behaviors of amphibians - in terms of
ethology, physiology, anatomy, and pharmacology - has accumulated. Our third
international workshop proceeds in the tradition of furthering the dialog between
experimentalists and theorists.
Because there are no boundaries between artificial and natural sensorimotor
systems in cybernetics, cross-disciplinary studies are particularly fruitful. Implicit in
xi
xii PREFACE
the goals of our interdisciplinary research is another branch touching on interests of
applied science. The study of biological information processing systems holds promise
of indicating elegant solutions to practical problems in robots. Natural pattern
recognition systems, for example, successfully deal with different invariance
conditions in visual sensorimotor tasks. Comparable properties have proven difficult
to implement in optoelectronic devices or machines (e.g., position/orientation/velocity
invariance in the recognition of work-pieces on assembly lines). Computer
simulations represent operating algorithms derived from the basic properties of the
model which can be implemented in robotic systems. Hence, with the aid of models
constructed from data on biological mechanisms of visuomotor coordination a first
step in the development and the testing of algorithms for performance and tuning of
robotic devices may be taken. Moreover, the interplay of empirical and theoretical
analyses will actually increase the pace toward our understanding of the properties of
information processing carried out by central nervous systems.
PART I opens the workshop proceedings with a general discussion on
experimentation and modeling in neuroscience, transcribed from tape recordings at
the meeting. Main topics of general interest concern the dialog between model and
experiment, the structure/function problem, the modulation of sensorimotor function,
and methodological interpretational problems.
PART II offers two overviews of the theme of this volume. The neuroethological
approach (Ewert) develops the neurophysiological equivalent of the ethological
Lorenzian concept of an "innate releasing schema" (also called releasing mechanism
after Tinbergen) as a "sensorimotor code" constituted by different combinations of
neurons, each of these expressing information processing in a functional unit of
interacting cells and specified to encode significant coincidences of stimulus cues that
refer to an object, e.g. a visual releaser. The corresponding command releasing
systems result from parallel distributed processing in a neural macro-network that
evaluates visual input under various aspects, such as features, background, space, and
past experience. The systems theoretical treatment (Arbib) uses perceptual and
motor schemas to provide models of amphibian visuomotor coordination bridging
behavior and neural circuits, and allowing approaches to perceptual robotics, both in
the control of dexterous robot hands and the design of machine vision systems.
PART m reports new results on the cellular architecture and connectivity of the
anuran's optic tectum and pretectum (Lazar) and the response properties of labeled
neurons (Matsumoto). We are faced here with an enormous richness in cytological
features of local circuits and of connecting and projecting neurons whose bifurcating
axons might provide a substrate for parallel processing. Response properties raise the
question of isomorphisms between the geometry of dendritic trees, axonal
projections, and the function of neurons. Application of the pulse-triggered averaging
technique provides insight into retino-tectal synaptic connectivity. Biochemical
investigations are becoming of increasing importance to understand interneuronal
communication and its control. Using isolated nerve endings or brain slices from the
optic tectum, various neurochemical criteria - sodium dependent uptake and calcium
dependent release - are applied to identify amino acid and amine neurotransmitters
(Sandoval, Massieu, Araiza & Fernandez). A model of retino-tectal information